Rabbit

I was surprised to wake up pretty sore today. I run 12 miles for my long run just about every week, so I didn't think I'd be sore from running a half-marathon yesterday, but pushing the pace took a toll on my legs. Normally, I run four miles on Sundays, but I took a rest day today. I might take another rest day tomorrow.

My next race is the Glass City Marathon as part of a five-person relay team. My sister is the one who formed the team made up of Jeanie (that's my sister), Jen (her best friend), Debbie (another friend of hers), Ty (who I invited), and me.

I'm really excited about the relay! We're doing it solely to have fun, so there is no pressure at all, which makes me happy. I've never run as part of a relay before, except for the Ragnar Relay, which is overnight, so this should be new and interesting. We provide our own transportation to each exchange point, which I think is even better--our team can stay together and leap frog the runner with the car, just like in the Ragnar.

I volunteered to make sparkle skirts for the whole team, so I worked on those today. When I bought the fabric for those, I saw some ribbon that matched perfectly and I thought would make cute headband. So I bought the stuff to make headbands for all of us as well. I made a copycat version of the Sweaty Band.

I spent the whole afternoon sewing sparkle skirts for my relay teammates.

I have some fabric scraps that I'm going to use to make wrist bands, too. Now that I'm done with my half-marathon, I am really excited about the relay!

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Yesterday, at the starting line of the race, I saw Ty just before the race started. She wanted to get a quick picture, so she motioned for a group of us to get together, and someone took a picture with her phone. I didn't know any of the others in the photo (and I didn't even turn around to see who was in it, because I was focused on the race starting any minute when the picture was taken).

Anyway, yesterday, Ty posted the photo to Facebook:

When I looked at the photo, I was shocked to see that the woman on the right in blue was the woman who paced me for the whole race (although she didn't know that...)! We were pretty much leap-frogging each other, and I made it a goal not to let her out of my sight, since she seemed to run the pace I was working on.

I wrote a quick "thank you" comment on Facebook to her, because she had no idea that she was my "rabbit" at the race. Ty sent me a link to her story, and I was completely amazed. Her name is Asia, and there is no way I can do justice to telling her story in a few words here, so here is the link to her story. The whole thing gave me goosebumps.

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I talked to my friend Sarah on the phone today. We've been trying to work out a date for me to go visit her in Phoenix. I've been wanting to go out there ever since I started flying again (despite my fear), but it's been really hard to figure out a date. I had been planning on going out there the last week of May, but she found out she has to do something important for her job that week. Then she's coming home (to Michigan) for six weeks!

She used all of her sick days for maternity leave, so she can't take time off until the fall. So now it's looking like I may end up waiting until the fall to go visit. That's going to be tough, because I have a couple of big things going on in the fall--I'm a bridesmaid in Jerry's sister's wedding in September, and then October is the Chicago Marathon with Andrea. Oh, well, at least now I'll have some time to save a little extra money, because right now I'm really too broke to think of a trip!

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The True Nature of Cats, Part 3

If you haven't seen it yet, I wrote a post earlier about my half-marathon recap. You can read it here.

(This is the third post of a four-post series about The True Nature of Cats movement that I learned about at the Purina ONE headquarters. You can read the first post here, and the second post here.)

The first week, I wrote about food; last week, I wrote about play; and now I'll write about making our cats environment as close to nature as possible, while in a house setting.

Anyone who has owned a cat probably knows that cats like to be hidden. They love to watch what is going on without being seen themselves. This is part of a cats instinct, so it's important to allow them to hide. In nature, cats spend some time stalking their prey before pouncing, and the stalking involves watching without being seen. We can set up spots in the house for them to use their instincts to hide.

The Purina ONE headquarters has an entire room set up with tons of cat stuff--toys, cat trees, hiding places, etc. It was SO cool to see all the different ideas...

Estelle would have a field day in that place! They even had a spot set up where we could make a hiding box for cats (which they then donate to a shelter, which I think is really cool). But it would be cheap and easy to make a box for your cat like this one, using a cardboard box, some tape, and paper:

Cats also like to be up high. This is another thing they do in nature--climb trees to watch their prey without being seen. Ideally, we'd all have a tree in our house for our cats to climb, but that's not very realistic, obviously. So the next best thing is to provide spots that are up high for our cats to perch.

I have a cat tree that my cats love to sit on (I keep it next to the window, so they can look outside). I saw some cool shelves at the Purina ONE headquarters that great for cats; I think I may make one (stepping completely into the "crazy cat lady" shoes). It's a curved shape, which is more natural than a flat shelf.

They also had these AMAZING cat trees around, which I would love for my cats, but I heard they are something like $1200. My cats will have to stick to the carpeted tree, unless I can sweet talk my dad into making one of these babies...

(By the way, Purina ONE doesn't sell this stuff--they bought it to create an ideal environment for cats, to educate people on the nature of cats.)

Estelle can give you some other ideas of what kind of environment makes cats happy... ;)

Can you spot her in there? No idea how she did it, but she's lying on top
of the hangers without falling!

Boxes, bags, and any kind of nook or cranny cats can find make great spots for them to hide. Bonus if the spots are up high! This picture of Chandler is on top of my kitchen cupboards, and before he got too fat to get up there:

Cats have different preferences, and all four of my cats like different spots--Chandler likes to be up high, Phoebe likes to be outside (if she can sneak out) or on a lap, Estelle likes to be inside of things, and Paolo likes to be wherever is soft and cozy.

Speaking of cats going outside, obviously that's in a cat's true nature as well. But cats are much safer in the house, and statistics show your cats will live much longer as an indoor cat. But something we learned at Purina ONE was that you can train your cat to use a leash. There are special leashes for cats (a harness, rather than a collar). Purina ONE included a leash in the box of stuff they sent, so I gave it a try. My cats weren't happy about it, but maybe with some more practice they'll like it. A leash is a safe way to let your cat explore outside (if would be very different from walking a dog, however; you wouldn't walk around the block, but let your cat explore the bushes and trees and and all that).

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On to the giveaway... :)  The winner of last week's canned food coupons goes to Lincoln! My boys found this picture hilarious:

Hahaha, he was having a ball with the toilet paper!

For next week, I have a coupon for an entire case of canned Purina ONE food (24 cans total) that I will be giving away. To enter, send me a picture of your cat in his/her "true nature"--where they like to hide or spy on you ;) Use the subject "Happy Cat".

This is the box that the toys from Purina ONE came in--
Estelle claimed the box instantly!

I only got about 25 photos for this last giveaway, so I didn't put them into a slideshow this time--but I'll save them and maybe make a slideshow next week, including those pics then.

Don't forget, the three food winners will be given the chance to win a big package of toys and puzzle feeders and cool cat stuff from Purina ONE! This will be your last chance, so make sure to find a cute photo of your kitty in his/her true nature ;)

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Martian Half-Marathon race report

(I'm posting my Saturday "cat post" tonight, so this is just a bonus entry from my race today.)

As I've mentioned (way too often), I've been lusting after a sub-2:00 half marathon for about three years now--since I started running. Ever since I finished the Detroit Free Press Marathon in October, I've been concentrating on getting faster. I've been working my ass off to run a half marathon in a time that starts with a 1.

Today was the big day I've been training for! I had been running at an 8:45-ish pace for my long runs, so I was VERY confident that I would reach my goal today. It wasn't a question of whether I would PR, but rather by how much I would PR.

And then a couple of days ago, all the talk started about the weather, and how we were expected to get freezing rain, some snow, and super high winds on race day. Also, part of the course was flooded. This totally burst my bubble, and I was really worried that maybe I wouldn't meet my goal after all.

Last night, Jessica and I rode with one of her friends to the expo, where we picked up our packets. And you can't go to Dearborn, Michigan without eating Middle Eastern food, so we carb-loaded on rice and pita bread at La Pita. I got my usual chicken kabob, of which you've seen the picture a dozen or so times.

Last night, I had a hard time sleeping--which almost always happens the day before a race. I got up with Jerry this morning at 4:30, even though I didn't have to leave until almost 7:00. I ate a big bowl of oatmeal with strawberries and chocolate chips (a great combo, by the way!):

I drank a whole quart of water and two cups of tea. I dressed in my muscle tights and two long-sleeved black tech shirts, hoping it would be warm enough.

I drove to Kroger, where I was meeting Jessica, and her friend drove us to the race. The weather was nothing like I was expecting, which was a good thing! It was cold, but I was fine with cold; I just don't like freezing rain AND cold AND wind. The race directors handled the weather issue REALLY well--they rerouted the half and full marathon to avoid the flooding. I'm sure that was a huge pain for them to do, but everything went off without a hitch.

The new course

As soon as you cross the starting line of this race, it goes up hill--which actually didn't bother me, because at the beginning of the race, I was just wanting to MOVE and get warm. It was super crowded at first, and I had to weave around people for a while, but I finally settled into a semi-comfortable pace.

The first few miles, I recognized the course from the 10K that I've done two years in a row. The half-marathon course is usually an out-and-back course (which you know I love), but since they rerouted it to avoid the flooding, I had no idea what to expect. It was kind of fun, the not-knowing.

I got a LOT of comments on my muscle tights. It was so fun! They were a great conversation-starter with other runners. I kept hearing "Nice legs!" "Check out those glutes!" and "Great muscles!" They were a good choice to wear, because they kept me distracted from the fact that I was running, and because when I would hear a comment, it usually made me run faster ;)

The new route took us through subdivisions, which was actually really cool--a lot of times, we could see runners on the opposite side of the road, going the opposite direction. Around mile 5 or 6, I saw Jessica not too far behind me. I wanted to yell out really loudly, "Go Jess!" but I was tired! I barely managed to say, "Great job" in passing. Then I saw Ty, and again, I wanted to yell--but I just managed a wave.

Mile seven really hit me hard, and I felt very tired. I decided to eat a Shot Blok (I brought two of them along with me in the pouch of my handheld water bottle). They were really stale and stuck together (I never use fuel when running, so when I say stale, I mean so old I probably shouldn't have been eating them). It took me probably a half a mile to get the whole thing swallowed, and I was even more tired from all the effort. But by mile 8 or so, I was feeling better.

At around mile 10, I was ready for another Shot Blok. I was fumbling with it, and then I dropped it on the ground. Without hesitation, I picked it up, squirted a little water on it, and popped it in my mouth. It was all I had! After that, I started to think of all the shoes that were running on that ground after using porta potties. I was grossing myself out, so I tried to think of something (anything) else, while trying to chew the stale Shot Blok for nearly a mile.

At one point (mile 11 maybe?) we had to cross a bridge that freaks me out every time--it's part of the 10K course, so I've had to run over it before. It bounces up and down from all the runners being on it at once, and it feels like trying to jump on a trampoline with a dozen other people. Very strange to run on! (Runners who don't know about the bridge always gasp, or say, "What the?!" while crossing--it's kind of funny).

The course was pretty hilly (especially for someone like me, who doesn't have a single hill to train on!), but whenever I came to a hill, I made it a mission to run FASTER. I charged up the hills, and then sped through the downhills. Shortly after that weird bridge, I turned a corner and it was a very steep hill in front of me.

The bridge had worn me out a little, and then I charged up the hill, and when I got to the top, I felt the weirdest sensation--almost like I was going to faint. My feet felt like I was still on the bridge, and I got dizzy. My pace slowed to 8:50 ish, and I focused on one girl that had been pacing me the whole way, pretty much. I just tried to focus on keeping up with her, but she was slowing, too. I eventually passed her at around mile 12, where there was a big old hill.

I was SO relieved when I saw that I had just a mile to go. I tried to pick up the pace again, but I was really ready to be done. The wind was picking up, and it had been drizzling freezing ran on and off for a few miles. The last quarter mile or so was downhill, which was nice.

The last tenth of a mile was actually pretty fun, because there were a lot of spectators, and lots of people were yelling comments to me about my muscle tights. I had a big old smile on my face through the whole finisher's chute and when I crossed the finish line.

I had done much better than I even anticipated--I expected to finish in about 1:55 if all went well today. I stopped my Garmin... 1:52!

My splits:

 My official results:

I grabbed some food (my kids are lucky, because I run a race and then bring them each a cookie from the finish while I eat a banana), and then went to the finisher's chute to watch for Jessica. She finished in 2:01:01, taking 14 minutes off of her PR!

After that I was FREEZING, and we stopped at Starbucks on the way home. I got a decaf, mostly just for the warmth. After I got my car from Kroger, I went to the local bakery that makes the best doughnuts ever, and I got a peanut butter cream-filled doughnut to have after lunch. It was SO heavenly!

Anyway, I am THRILLED with my new half-marathon PR! Now, I feel like I can truly just run for fun, without trying to hit a certain pace. I've reached my major running goals, and it will be nice to just run by how I feel, and not worry if I am slowing down.

(By the way, thanks so much for the offers to pick up my packet, etc., if I should do Indy--but since I reached my goal today, Indy isn't an option anymore. Probably for the best, because I don't think I could have worked it out anyway! But I do have a registration that can be transferred until the 19th. I was going to try and sell it, but if one of my readers would like it, I'd be happy to give it away. The only condition is that you actually use it! ;)  Just send me an e-mail if you're interested in it.)

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Options

I've been training so hard for about five months to get my sub-2:00 half-marathon. In training, I've even managed to finish around 1:54, which is just crazy to me. But, of course, it doesn't "count" unless it's a race. When I chose my goal race, I had three (fairly local) options--Rock CF, Glass City, and Martian.

I was in Dayton getting my RRCA certification for Rock CF, so that one was out. I agreed to run Glass City as part of a relay team, so that one was out. That left Martian.

I've run the Martian 10K for two years in a row, and I really like the course, so I was excited to do the half this year. I've done awesome in my training, I'm injury-free, everything was looking good. Until the weather forecast kept getting worse by the minute. Doesn't this look like a joke?

Tomorrow, it is predicted to be freezing cold, with a mix of rain and snow, and very windy. Oh, and let's not forget that some of the course may be flooded. This is supposed to be SPRING!

I'm really bummed out about this. I'm praying for a miracle, but planning for the worst. I was very confident that I'd get my sub-2:00 time, considering the pace of my long runs is faster than the pace needed for that finish time. But I wasn't planning on horrible weather. Now, I'm not feeling so confident.

I'm still going to try my best, but I can't pretend this doesn't put a big huge wet (and snowy) blanket on my outlook for the race. So I started thinking of alternative options, in case this doesn't work out. I don't want all my training to go to waste.

Option 1: I could register for the Glass City Half-Marathon, and be Runner #1 of the relay. That way, I could do both the relay AND the half-marathon at the same time. Problem with this is that it won't be nearly as much fun as just concentrating on a fun relay race.

Option 2: I am already registered for the Indy 500 Festival half-marathon on May 4th. I was going to try and sell/give away my bib, since I wasn't planning to go. It's a little over a two-hour drive, so I could get up uber early on race day, drive to Indy, run the race, and drive home. The (obvious) problem with this is all the driving.

The main reasons I chose not to do Indy were because I didn't want to spend time away from my family (doing "my" trips without them), and because of the expense (the hotel and food for a whole weekend). By doing it this way, my biggest expense would be gas money, which wouldn't be that bad.

If I do decide to drive to Indy the day of the race, are any of you, dear readers, planning on doing Indy and could you possibly pick up my packet on Friday? There is no race day packet pick up. I'd also kind of be looking for a place to park...

I'm just hoping I won't even have to worry about it. I hope I have an awesome race tomorrow and get my sub-2:00, and be done with it!

So anyway, I will think it over as I'm dying running my race in the tornado-y flooded blizzard tomorrow. Should make for a good race report, right?

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Yesterday, while Jerry and I were getting the boys ready for school, Eli said that he wishes he could jump on his bed (pretty much impossible with a bunk bed!) and Noah agreed. I said, "Well, we could separate you guys--you could have separate bedrooms." And they thought that would be really cool.

When they left, I said to Jerry, "Let's do it today! We can surprise them when they get home from school." So we went shopping for bed frames. I didn't want anything expensive, and we ended up getting some stackable bunk beds at Wal-Mart, which was cheaper than buying two separate beds. This way, we figured, if they hated being separated, we could always stack the beds and they could be together again.

We came home and took apart the old bunk bed, then put together the new twin beds (and by "we", you know I mean "Jerry", right? Good.) We separated the rooms, and cleaned them to look nice when the kids got home. Then we waited around, super excited for the bus to come drop them off. When they got home, I told them I had a surprise in their bedroom.

They walked in and were stunned, and super excited. They kept hugging us and saying "Thank you!" It was the perfect reaction; I would have been disappointed if they thought it was no big deal. Eli was excited to sit up on his bed with his back against the wall and color on a little lap desk:

Noah was very happy to have the smaller room. He gets scared of the dark, and with the smaller room, his lava lamp keeps the whole room lit up. He was thrilled with his bed:

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Tonight, I'm planning to make myself feel better about my race by fueling up with some La Pita. Jessica and I are going to the expo to get our packets, and going to La Pita for dinner!

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Shortcut novice

It is SO hard to get a 100% on my ActiveLink on the days that I don't run. Yesterday was my rest day, and it was thunder storming, so I didn't go out for a walk. I did run a few errands and clean around the house, so I was being fairly active.

Then last night, at around 7:00, I saw that I had just barely reached my baseline (the point at which I've accomplished the required amount of activity for the day, when I can start earning PointsPlus for activity beyond that).

I was just going to forget about earning any PointsPlus yesterday, but Jerry said, "Want to do the Wii Fit?" And for some reason, I said sure. When I got on the balance board, it said I had lost 20 pounds since the last time I used it, which was fun to see. I did the marching band game first, which is my favorite.

Then I did the biking game, where you have to "bike" around the island and collect flags. I did the "expert" course, and had to find 20 flags. (If you're not familiar with the biking on the Wii, you just step in place on the balance board, which pedals the bike on the screen). It took much longer than I thought it would to find all the flags, and I wanted to quit, but I hated to leave the game without accomplishing getting all the flags!

Well, 59 minutes and lots of frustrated curses later, I finally got all the flags. And it had the nerve to call me a "Shortcut Novice", hahaha.

Even after that, I'd only earned 3 PP. My calves were a little sore from doing that!

This morning, I planned to run outside, but when I got up, it was pouring rain. I was going to run on the treadmill after getting the kids ready for school, but then the rain stopped, so I was able to run outside after all. As soon as I got outside, I noticed it was really windy, and I almost went back inside to drool over Jax while I ran on the treadmill, but I knew I should stick it out.

My hope was to just get in one good, fairly fast run as a confidence booster for my race on Saturday. I wanted to try and match my "happy" pace on the treadmill (8:20/mi). On the way out (out and back route), I felt great. Other than a few big gusts, the wind wasn't too bad. It didn't occur to me that it felt easy because I had a tail wind the whole way out! Duh.

When I turned around, the wind took my breath away for a minute. I was giving it the same effort as before, but my pace slowed and it was HARD. Mile three was definitely the hardest. Mile four was pretty rough for the first half, but then the last little bit wasn't bad, and I picked up the pace to finish strong.

It's interesting to see the change in pace from mile two to mile three, even though my heart rate stayed exactly the same. When I was running with the wind, my pace was 8:14; when I turned around, my pace was 8:28, but I was using the same amount of effort. Wind resistance definitely plays a big part in my pace!
 

I wish I could say that this was a confidence-booster run, but it felt really tough! Tomorrow is my usual long run day, but since I'm running a half-marathon on Saturday, I'm taking a rest day tomorrow. So this was my last run before my goal race. The weather isn't looking too good for Saturday--I really hope it's not going to rain! The race posted this on Facebook:

Bummer!

I had to go weigh in at Weight Watchers today. I haven't been going to the meetings at all since the issue with the receptionists. Because I'm a Lifetime Member, I only have to weigh in once a month. Anyway, Jerry decided to go with me, and wanted to stay for the meeting. He usually just goes and weighs in, and then leaves--he's never stayed for a meeting before.

It was funny to me, because he was really nervous about it! He was worried about being judged. But he reached his goal weight the last time he weighed in, and he didn't even let the receptionist know that it was his goal--so he didn't get an award or anything. I might be shy about talking about my own accomplishments, but I wanted to tell them all what Jerry has done; so I announced that he'd reached his goal and then I got out my phone and showed off his before and after pictures.

The receptionists were super nice, and made Jerry feel good about his accomplishment. While we were waiting for the meeting to start, we were flipping through the handout booklet that we got, and Jerry started laughing when he saw this:

 If Weight Watchers wants men to get excited about their program, this certainly isn't the way to go about it!  ;)  Jerry spends 5 PP on a beer every night, and that's why he likes the program--he doesn't have to give up beer or drink HALF a beer in a wine glass! Hahaha. I can just picture his "friend's" face when Jerry suggests sharing a beer and drinking it out of wine glasses.

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Headband review and giveaway

So, despite the fact that I ate way too much sugar this week, I was only up half of a pound on the scale for my Wednesday Weigh-in...

When I eat crappy all week, I FEEL like I've gained 100 pounds back. Even after one meal of eating too much, when I feel too full, I feel like I'm 253 pounds again. But then after a day or two of eating really well, I feel light as a feather, even if the scale doesn't show that.

Regardless, I'm happy with my weigh-in today, and I'm even happier that I'm back to making better food choices. My main focus this week is to cut back on the sugar--one treat a day, not three or four ;)

Jerry suggested weighing Chandler to see if his diet has done him any good yet. So I think I'll weigh Chandler in on Wednesdays as well. I was shocked to see that the diet is actually working--he's lost half a pound!! He weighed a svelte 24.5 pounds after a week and a half on his new diet. I'll write more about how he's doing on my Saturday cat post (Caturday?)

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I was recently contacted by 6 Dollar Bands, a website that sells no-slip headbands, to see if I wanted to review their headbands (and give one away to a reader, of course!). Last year, I reviewed Sweaty Bands, and was actually pretty impressed with how well they stayed on my big head (I can't get headbands to stay in place, for the life of me).

Lately, since I've been doing quite a bit of running on the treadmill, I've been wearing them to keep my hair out of my face. My hair has gotten long enough that I can't put it in a bun, because the bun comes loose in less than a minute or two. So I put it in a ponytail, but then my bangs wind up in my face. So I was using the Sweaty Bands that I had, and was happy to review the 6 Dollar Bands and see how they compare.

They are called 6 Dollar Bands because most of them are, well, $6 (some are $8--I'm not sure why some are more than others). They sent me two bands:

How do I always manage to look the same in every picture?!

They are lined with velvet ribbon, so that they stay in place on your head. They were nearly identical to the Sweaty Bands, except these ones are adjustable. They have a little slider thing on the elastic. In the pic below, the band on the left is a Sweaty Band, on the right is the 6 Dollar Band.

The only noticeable difference between the Sweaty Band and the
6 Dollar Band is the adjustable strap (on right)

In comparison, the Sweaty Bands are $15-18, and the 6 Dollar Bands are $6-8. I really do like these bands, and I discovered that they stay put the best when I wear them closer to my hair line, like in the pictures above. If I try to wear them back farther, they slip off. But if I wear them an inch or so from my forehead, they stay on through my entire long run (I wore one during my 14+ mile run a couple weeks ago, and I didn't have to adjust it at all).

I'm still not sure about the care of the headbands--I just hand wash mine in the sink quickly after a run, and let it air dry. They look like they'd probably hold up okay in the washer, but I haven't tried that. The fabric of the sparkly one seems a little more fragile, so I'm not going to be wearing it for daily runs.

These headbands do absorb a little sweat, but I wouldn't consider it a "sweat band"--it doesn't absorb much. I wear them to keep my hair out of my face, and they do that job very well (also, they look cute).

Would I buy these at a race expo? Yep! I definitely think they are worth the $6-8 price tag. 6 Dollar Bands generously agreed to give away a headband to a Runs for Cookies reader! So if you'd like to try one, just leave a comment on this post, and I'll randomly select a winner on Friday (4/12) at 9:00 AM EST. CONTEST HAS NOW ENDED.


You can check out 6 Dollar Bands on their website and on Facebook. (Disclaimer: I was given two headbands to review for free, but was not required to give a favorable review--my opinions are honest, as always).

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Hills

Yesterday, I did a hill workout for the second time ever. I've always hated hills, but talking about them in my RRCA class made me want to add them to my training. Because of my history with knee injury, I am doing these on the treadmill so that I don't have to do the downhill part (which is what usually causes injury).

In my mind, the workout I had planned seemed simple enough:

1 mile warm-up at 6.7 mph
1/2 mile at  7.5 mph with 5% incline
1/4 mile walk at 3 mph with 2% incline
(repeat intervals for a total of 4 times)
1 mile cool down at 6.7 mph

It was MUCH tougher than I anticipated! The incline and faster speed was really hard. I thought it was interesting to see my heart rate...

I think the 5% incline at 7.5 mph was much harder than 1% incline at 9.3 mph (the speed I was doing my quarter-mile repeats at). At first, I was thinking I should probably do 6-8 repeats--ha! I felt exhausted after four.

Yesterday morning after my run, I went to Kroger to pick up some potatoes and postage stamps--a quick in and out trip to the store. I did the self-scan checkout, and asked for stamps. After I paid, the cashier still hadn't gotten my stamps, so I had to wait for her to finish helping someone else. Finally, she gave me the stamps and I walked outside.

As soon as I walked out the door, I saw a car go FLYING past the store (at what I later learned was 100 mph). Following the car, were police cars, with lights and sirens going. I counted nine of them! I was so stunned at how fast the cars were going on that two-lane road that I just stopped and gawked  for a minute.

I was curious what was going on, and if the person ended up being caught. The road is a twisty road, and not very safe for a high-speed chase. I run on that road, and thankfully, I wasn't running yesterday morning. I drove a few miles down the road, and saw that the chase had ended with the car crashing into someone's privacy fence.

I later read an article about it in the newspaper, and learned it was a 36-year old woman, who was high on cocaine, and they had tried pulling her over for speeding on the expressway 25 miles away. She fled, going the WRONG WAY on the expressway, causing a couple of accidents. They managed to put out spikes and blow one of her tires, but she was still driving over 100 mph. When she crashed, she was trying to enter a subdivision, and thank God she crashed before driving like that through a sub with houses everywhere. She ran when the car stopped, but she was caught.

I was thinking on the way home that if I didn't have to wait on the stamps, I would have been just ahead of the whole car chase, and who knows how that could have ended?! Interesting how things work out that way.

Anyway, this morning, I had plans to get together with Jessica for coffee, so I got up bright and early at 5:30 to run on the treadmill before the boys woke up. Ever since I started going for walks in the afternoons, my sleep has become a little more regular. I am super tired at the end of the day, and usually in bed by 9:30 or 10:00, and then I usually sleep until 6:00. I used to wake up several times during the night, but lately, I've only been waking about two times per night. It's nice!

I turned on Sons of Anarchy (for those of you that are interested, I'm on season four, episode two), and hopped on the treadmill. I ran a mile warm-up, and then three miles at my "happy pace", and then walked for about a half mile until the episode was over. (Oh! When I saw the first episode of season four, I was SO happy to see that Jax cut his hair; he was hot before, but he's a million times hotter now...)

After the kids went to school, I caught up on some e-mail and then went to meet Jessica. She's running the half-marathon this Saturday, also. We're going to go to the expo on Friday and then go have dinner at La Pita! Then we're going to meet on Saturday morning to ride together to the race. I'm bummed that the half-marathon start time is 8:45--that's late to start a half-marathon! There is a marathon, a half, a 10K, and a 5K, and the half-marathon is the last one to start. Weird, right?

I had another day of good eating, so I'm hoping the damage on the scale tomorrow isn't TOO bad!

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Motivational Monday #10

I've made some really bad food choices this week, and I was feeling pretty down about it all weekend. I've been spending way too many PointsPlus on sweets. I don't mind using some every day for a sweet treat, but it was pretty ridiculous this week (I spent more PP on sweets than I did on regular food!), so I'm going to work really hard to rein it in. I want to feel GREAT for my half-marathon on Saturday!

I am proud that I didn't let the overeating of sweets turn into a binge, though. It was SO hard not to, but a long conversation with Jerry helped me quite a bit, and kept me on track. I'm so glad that Easter is over, and the candy at the stores is almost gone (Kroger has Cadbury Creme Eggs on sale for a quarter each!)

I'm also proud of the fact that I have been going on lots of walks lately. I should start keeping track of my mileage, just out of curiosity. I probably walked about 15 miles this week, in addition to my running. 

Anyway, I did not let the poor choices make me say "screw it" and eat everything in sight, and for that I'm proud. I'm back on track and had a great day today. I'm not sure what my weekly weigh-in will show on Wednesday, but I can handle it, even if it's a legitimate gain.

Reading your Motivational Monday accomplishments has me fired up to have a great week! Here is what a few readers have been up to:

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Shanna finished her first 5K in 42:19! When she first started walking/running, she couldn't even go a half mile without "wanting to die". Since late December, she's lost 26 pounds!

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Leslie has been trying to get into the 170's for a very long time, and this weekend, she finally did it. She's lost a total of 93 pounds, and just PR'ed a 5K, taking 6 minutes off of her time from the same race last year! (The photo shows a comparison of last year's race and one year later...)

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Danielle hit a huge milestone in her weight loss this week--the big 50-pound mark! She's lost 52 pounds in five months by doing Weight Watchers and exercising.

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As always, there is a ton of motivation to be found on the Facebook post. Here are just a few:

If you ever want to share an accomplishment, you can always e-mail a photo with the subject "RfCMM" to SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, and I may include it on a Motivational Monday post. (Make sure you use that subject, or "Motivational Monday", because it's basically your way of saying you don't mind if I include it on the blog.)

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Decaf, please

Yesterday was a rest day, and I had a pretty lazy morning with the family. We ate breakfast and then watched a movie. I went grocery shopping, and when I came home, it was already after noon! I had lots of plans for yesterday, but all of them pretty much fell through.

My brother Brian was in town from Minnesota, and my younger brother, Nathan, got tickets to go to the Tigers game. He'd asked me and Jerry if we wanted to go, and we said sure. Then later, he said he was only able to get four tickets, so he, Brian, and their girlfriends were going.

I had no interest in the game whatsoever (I'm not a sports fan), but I was hoping to be able to spend time with my brothers, so I was disappointed. But then I remembered that there was a benefit dinner for my friend Sarah (who has melanoma) last night, and I wanted to make sure to go to that, so it worked out fine.

The benefit was at a local bar, and Jerry and I got dressed to go. We weren't going to have the steak dinner, but I at least wanted to donate some money and see Sarah (the last time I saw her was when I visited her in the hospital a while ago). When we got there, there weren't any parking spaces, so we had to park across the street. I took that as a good sign that it was going well!

But when we walked in, I was really confused. There were signs for the benefit, but nobody was there to greet people or tell them where to make a donation or what was going on. We stood at the bar for about five minutes, waiting to order a drink, but the bartender was talking with people and never even glanced at us.

I didn't see Sarah there, so I asked Jerry if he just wanted to leave, and that's what we did. I was disappointed not to see Sarah, but I sent her a message asking if she'd want to get together for lunch or something soon.

I really wanted to go out somewhere after that, because I had actually taken the time to do my hair and make-up (haha, I sound like such a slob), but we couldn't think of anywhere to go. We ended up getting a flurry from the local ice cream shop that I'd been craving. That place has the BEST flurries, and I hadn't had one in almost two years (last spring I made a goal to go an entire season without one, and I did it). I got half Reese's Cup and half Butterfinger, and it wasn't nearly as good as I remember. My craving is definitely gone now, and I won't be getting another flurry!

Jerry said his wasn't as good as he remembers, either. We used to get those all the time, and that ice cream shop made better flurries than anywhere--I guess I just lost the taste for them? Weird. But good, because those things did some serious damage to my weight two summers ago. ;)

Since yesterday was a rest day, I didn't run, but I still wanted to try to meet my ActiveLink activity goal for the day. In the afternoon, Jerry and I went to the State Park for a walk. We stopped for coffee at the Circle K to carry with us, because it was freezing outside. It was funny--I got decaf coffee and put in regular half-and-half; Jerry got regular coffee and put in this stuff called Stok, a creamer that has TONS of extra caffeine in it.

When we got to the park, Jerry grabbed the coffees and I asked him which was mine. He didn't know. One was decaf, and one was extra caff. I said he'd better not guess wrong, or I'd have a heart attack on our walk! He sipped both, and was very confident that he chose the right one. (Thankfully, he did choose correctly).

We walked the long way around the park, which was a little over five miles. It was cold, but nice to hang out and do something active.

We ended up staying in last night, and we got a movie from the Redbox. I was SO tired, though, that I could barely keep my eyes open. My brothers called me and asked if we wanted to go to Nathan's house for a bonfire, but it was freezing cold outside, and I was just too tired to go out after that. Sadly, I was in bed at 9:00 on a Saturday night ;)

Oh! When I got the mail yesterday, I noticed an envelope from the RRCA... my certification!

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The True Nature of Cats, Part 2

(This is the second post in a four-post series about what I learned at Purina ONE headquarters about The True Nature of Cats. You can read Part 1 here.)

Last week, I wrote about feeding cats. Something I learned that is closely related to feeding them is playing with them.

What we consider "play" is probably more like "work" to a cat. In nature, they have to work for their food--stalking, pouncing, and killing prey. It's an instinct that cats have, so they can't control that urge to stalk, pounce, and kill. I learned that I was playing with my cats all wrong!

I used to get a toy (usually something dangling at the end of a string) and I would dangle it in front of my cats and they would bat at it. Cats may find this a little entertaining, but once I started playing with my cats the way I was taught at Purina ONE, they went crazy for it! Even Chandler, who is SUPER lazy; I've never seen him so active as I have this past week.

In nature, a cat's prey doesn't jump around right in front of the cat, or dangle itself right in front of the cat's face. The prey tries to run and hide to get away from the cat. Meanwhile, the cat is watching very closely, and sneaking up on it, and, eventually, pouncing on it for the kill.

So the best way to play with your cat is to imitate the prey. Instead of dangling the toy in front of the cat, we can slowly drag the toy across the floor, turn corners, make it "crawl" up onto a table, etc. All of my cats (well, except Paolo--I think he may have problems with his vision) are obsessed with a particular toy that was included in the box Purina ONE sent me. Here is what it looks like:

It's a long skinny pole (like a fishing rod) with this feather thing hooked to it. The feathers are unique because when you "fly" the thing through the air, it actually kind of spins and looks similar to a bird. Rather than just dangle it in front of them, I use the pole to make the "bird" fly all over the room. The cats watch it very carefully, and once in a while when it swoops down, they leap in the air and try to grab it. I don't make it easy for them, because then it's not as fun for them. It's important to let them catch it before you put the toy away, though, so they have the satisfaction of getting their "kill".

I learned that the best time to play with the cats is right before they eat. In nature, the cats hunt and then eat, so that is what we should try to imitate. Play (hunt), catch the "prey", and then eat.

Another way you can get your cat to work for their food is by using a puzzle feeder. I'd never heard of these until I went to Purina ONE headquarters. There are lots of different types, but basically, they make your cat have to work a little bit to get the food out. Here are a couple of pictures of the ones that were included in the box from Purina ONE:

In the first one, with the little green cups, you put a few pieces of kibble inside each cup, and the cat has to reach in and grab a the food and pull it out. Estelle has been using this one a lot, and she does really well with it. Paolo watches her, and then tries to get the food that Estelle has gotten out--sneaky cat! ;)

The second picture is a white ceramic puzzle feeder. You put the dry kibble in through the hole in the top, and it spreads out on the bottom. The cats have to reach in through the sides to pull out a few pieces of food at a time. Phoebe prefers this one.

The third picture is a wobbler puzzle feeder--you put food or treats inside, and there is a little hole (just big enough to dispense a couple of pieces at a time) on the side. When the cat swats at the toy, and it tips on its side, some food may fall out. My cats haven't gotten the hang of this one yet, but Estelle ripped the fuzzy tail off the top of it, and she adores that part!

I haven't had any luck getting Chandler or Paolo to use the puzzle feeders. Chandler is too lazy and set in his ways, and Paolo is just too finicky and dependent. If he had his way, we'd be setting a place for him with candlelight and a silver platter ;)

So anyway, your cat's instincts make them want to work for their food--whether it's the stalking and "killing" before eating, or by using their brain to come up with ways to get the food out of a puzzle feeder. My cats have absolutely loved that I've been playing with them the "right" way, and they've gotten into a good routine now (play, eat, groom, sleep). It took about four days of craziness to get them used to it, but it's gotten much easier now, and I know they are happier.

Next week, I'll write about the best "natural" environment at home for our cats.

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Now, the winner of last week's photo contest for the cat food...

I got nearly a hundred photos, and they were all fantastic--I've loved going through them! But I left the decision up to my boys. Noah and Eli both agreed on the winner:

 

This adorable kitty is Kiwi! Congrats, Kiwi, and I hope you enjoy your food from Purina ONE!

I realized last week that I looked at my coupons incorrectly. One was for dry food, the others are for wet food. So for this week's contest, to win a coupon for cans of wet food (Purina ONE Healthy Metabolism variety), please e-mail me a "playful" photo of your cat. You can interpret "playful" however you'd like. My e-mail address is SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Important: Use the subject "Playful Cat", to make sure it doesn't go to spam or get buried in other e-mail. I'll accept photos until Thursday, 4/11/13 at 4:00 PM.

Here is a rare picture of Paolo being playful. That's about as lively as he gets!

 Finally, the photos that everyone sent were SO ridiculously cute and/or funny that I just had to put them together in a video. :)  Enjoy!

You can check out more about The True Nature of Cats movement on Facebook and on the Purina ONE website.

(Disclaimer: Purina ONE covered my travel costs and provided me with a box of cat toys and food in exchange for my thoughts on the True Nature of Cats movement. I was not required to give a favorable opinion.)

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