W3 recap, W4 announcement!

Oh, boy, I am a little sleepy this evening.  And freeeeezing!!!  I know some people are in temps way lower than what we have here right now, but I'm still going to complain.  ;)

Okay, Week three's challenge was awesome.  I might even continue it for another week.  Truthfully, I should continue it for life, right?  Okay, deal.  I will eat 8+ servings of fruits and veggies every day and concentrate on getting in approximately 90 ounces of water.  The water was tricky on a couple of days since it's so cold and I just don't want to drink water - or anything - when I'm cold!!  Except coffee.  Mmmm, coffee.  A friend of a friend wrote a great tip yesterday that she takes her first bottle of water for the day into the shower where she will be warm.  Then, she says it's easier to drink the rest of the day because she is thirsty after getting that first bottle down.  Love it!  Unfortunately, I really don't shower every morning.  Still a great tip. 

I'm not going to recap every day's fruits and veggie breakdown.  I promise I got 8 and more in each day.  Lots of oranges and apples.  I made fruit salad a couple of days - the kids went crazy for that - ate cottage cheese with canned pineapple or pears or peaches a few days.  Lots of carrots.  Mmm, mmmm, good.

So, here's the announcement for Week 4.  I'm not excited about it.  At.  All.  The problem is this - it's a very in depth week's worth of challenges (yes, plural), and I really was just talking about how much I have to do this week.  This is going to be quite the juggling week for me.  Phew.

Well, I didn't set out to make excuses.  This is all about doing things out of my comfort zone.  Here we go....

7 days of "challenges".  Each one should be done on a separate day.

     *Deep clean a bathroom (I will try to both)
     *Clean out a vehicle (we only have one)
     *Rearrange a room (funny thing is, I love doing this, but...I literally rearranged every room last week!)
     *Clean out the fridge and pantry (my intention is not just cleaning OUT the fridge, but cleaning the shelves and drawers, too)
     *Change all the bedsheets (so, we usually end up changing the kids' sheets regularly because they pee in their beds, but this is an intentional changing of all bedsheets and probably flipping mattresses)
     *Go through the clothes.  (UGH.  NOOOOO!!!  Meaning, go through and remove stuff that is too small or doesn't get worn and arrange the dresser drawers correctly)
     *One other major cleaning project.  (Okay, so I have asked my husband what he would like this to be....against every fiber of my being.  Hahaha.  He says clean out the "little playroom" which is this closet under the stairs that we never enter, but the kids play in it constantly.)

I hate this week.  Seriously.  Here's what you have to look forward to, though - before and after pictures!!  Good times!

Well, my running buddy Jenn and I did a 10+ miler tonight.  It was crazy.  I'm not sure the recap will do it justice, but I have to share!!

Miles 1 & 2 were in town, side streets with sidewalks.  It was so cold outside and we were both just not feeling it...kind of chatting about some stuff from the past couple of days.  I checked the watch just after mile 2 and we were at about 19 minutes, so good pace.  It was about then that I hit a nice zone.  I felt good and was actually excited about the miles ahead!  We got to the end of our road running and went down a small hill to enter into the "Rivanna Trail".  This was at mile 3.1.

I truly don't know how many miles we did on the trail.  Once we entered, we had to make a decision on a fork rather quickly.  We chose right and ran and ran (through some mud!) and then the trail appeared to end.  It looked like someone had laid new grass and thbere was a short barrier that had been put up (hopefully not to keep people off!)...at this point, we decided to turn around and try the other direction at the fork.  As we ran back, I'm not sure we actually made it back to the original fork before finding a new one!  We chose left...this ran down closer to the water and then kept going and going.  Until we hit some strange looking bamboo trees and a tall sign that said "Private Property.  No Trespassing."  Awesome, right?  After a little discussion, we decided to turn around.  When we got back, we decided to try the "dead end" one more time and just look harder for the rest of the trail.  Seriously, there were signs that said RT with arrows!  Well, we hopped the short barrier and ran in the grass.  We ran along the water and ran and ran...then we had to hope over some rocks and mud to get to another sign.  Then we came to the edge of a mini-cliff.  It was kind of hilarious.

Going by mapmyrun.com, we found a street at approximately 4.27 miles.  Yay!  It really felt like longer in the woods, but confusion can do that to time, right?  So, we get up on the street and run to the nearest street sign.  It's not a road we recognized, so I got my phone out and we used the GPS to find our way to the next intersection on my written down directions.  As we get back to running on the roads and following the GPS' instructions...we end up back on Rio Road for 1/3rd of a mile.  This is the road we wound up on a week or so ago when Jenn twisted her ankle because we were trying to run so close to the edge...of the very busy road with no streetlights.  And no sidewalks.  And no shoulder!!!  Very scary.  We ran this part fast.  We got to our next road and relaxed a bit...settled in to knowing the rest of the run would be "easy".  This is at mile 5.08.

So, we run on some sidewalks and try to get back to our zone.  We had to walk a little bit because it was just so discombobulating (love that word) to go from crazy mud/grass running and then up some hills and then super fast running down the scary street.  Ugh.  Well, we got our legs back together and picked up the chatter and ran.  It was nice!  As we follow the instructions, we get to a road where I said "Oh yeah, we know where we are now!  We've run this road before!"  And then we must have gotten cocky.  Or tired?  Either way, we took a right.  On the wrong road.  We couldn't turn around, though, because this road was a major downhill and we were loving it.  It felt so good!!  We get to the bottom of the beautiful hill and the end of the road and have to make a decision.  At this point, we have completed 7.56 miles and have no idea how far we have actually gone, but we know we're cold and late getting home and I'm just done. 

We turned onto one of the busiest roads in Charlottesville.  No sidewalk, but there was some nice grassy area to run along.  Unfortunately, no lights, so we were relying on the cars coming and going down the road to light the way.  The lights coming towards us were super bright and glaring and those made it harder to see!  We passed a couple of side streets that also could have taken us (in a very roundabout way) back to our starting point, but I just wanted to go straight there.  Nothing tricky.  Nothing fancy.  Just get back to the warm restaurant with yummy food and happy people.  PLEASE!   :)

At 8.92 miles we turned down the road that would be our final turn.  The home stretch!  Sidewalks and overhead lighting!  I know this road!!  We took off.  Now, I have to admit at this point, I was ready to just walk the rest.  I was so done and cold and tired and didn't want to be carrying my damn water bottle any. more.!!!!!  Guess who had different plans?  Running partner Jenn.  She freaking took off!  I am not one to allow anyone to beat me, so I took off as well.  We stopped talking and just ran.  We ran hard.  We practically sprinted to the main traffic light we had decided would be our "finish".  Now that I am home and mapping it, it turns out to be 9.72 miles.  I would swear we ran farther.  Seriously.  I can't help but be a little disappointed...but I do know my "mapping" of the part on the trail can't be 100% accurate.  So, with walking included (before and after) we did 10.10 miles.  My watch showed we were gone for 1 hour, 55 minutes.  I have no idea how that breaks down. 

Here is what I do know:
     *We ran our butts off when we were running.
     *Outside of the confusion in the woods, and one time to text my husband that we were behind schedule, we didn't take any major walk breaks.  There were a couple of pretty serious hills that we walked, but we made it a point to speed-walk and both times were under a minute of walking.
     *I feel great.  My legs are sore and they know we saw some action.  My lungs are slightly burning from the super cold air.  I feel like I worked hard to burn some major calories today, and I feel another step gone in my training!
     *I cannot wait for our next long run.  Next Saturday we are doing 12 miles.  The plan is to do it around the lake out here at my house.  We know we will not run into anything unforeseen and we will be able to really push ourselves to run the full time.

Okay.  Sorry for the longness, but it was kind of fun to remember!  Haha. 

What sort of cleaning challenges will you make to yourself this week!???