Positive Things

      1 Comment on Positive Things

So, let’s start with the bad news:

IMG_0025

Yes, that’s right, I gained six-tenths of a pound this week. My initial reaction was to say, “Oh, it’s only about half a pound, and that’s like staying the same.” But then I realized that if I had lost six-tenths of a pound, I’d be  proclaiming to the world how I had lost weight this week! 😛

So, yeah, gaining weight, even a small amount, isn’t what I’d like. But instead of focusing on the negative, I thought I would highlight all the positive things that happened in my life in the past week:

1.  I met one of the challenges in Katie’s #CookiesSummerRunning challenge. One of the items on the list is to plan out a run new to you, one that travels through two different cities. I actually did three! Of course, it helps when you start a quarter mile from the intersection of all three. 😉 JJ had a hockey workout in Riverview, and it was very close to the border between Riverview, Southgate, and Wyandotte. I had only planned to do 2 miles, because it was in the evening, and a warm evening at that, but I took a turn I shouldn’t have and ended up going farther than I expected. When JJ found out I ran 3.17 miles, he declared it the Southgate-Wyandotte-Riverview 5K. I just declared it a hot damn run. 😛

IMG_9954

IMG_9948

2. On Saturday, I ran with Katie. It was a run that almost didn’t happen, because I was so nervous about running with anyone at my current pace. I’ve mentioned that I’m still doing heart rate training, but instead of using MAF, I’m using the training plan that Katie created for me. It allows me to run a little faster, but not as fast as I used to pre-MAF, especially if the weather is warm. I actually chickened out and told her I didn’t want to do it Friday evening, but then I felt guilty and texted her back a little later, asking if she still wanted to do it. Lucky for me, she said OK, but I did make her promise not to hate me too much for running at a 13-minute-per-mile pace. 😉 Even though we ran slow for 6 miles, she was a great sport about it. We actually had a great time. It has been so long since I’ve run with anyone else, I forgot how much fun it is, and how much faster it goes by! It was a beautiful morning, and we ran by the River Raisin, in a direction I’ve never run before. The views were amazing!

IMG_9968 IMG_9965

It was slow, but it was also really enjoyable.

3. My kids have been a lot less active this summer than I would like, even though Jamie is doing a lot of workouts with the hockey and football team for high school, and JJ is doing workouts with his hockey team as well. On top of that, I’m making them do a lot of chores around the house, but they still seem to end up on the X-box way too often. Sunday, when we got home from church, I decided I’d had enough: I packed up the bikes and dragged them out to Lower Huron Metropark, where we ended up doing a 10-mile bike ride! 

IMG_9987 IMG_9994-2 IMG_9989

I actually wasn’t planning on going that far, but that’s just how it ended up. We still had a great time, and I was so impressed with their attitude, not complaining once, even though it seemed like a never-ending ride, that I gave them a little treat afterwards.

IMG_0008 IMG_0011

That’s a local ice cream shop in New Boston, which I had never actually been to before. It’s in a very old building downtown, and the inside was awesome!

4.  Another positive for the week is that I have continued to stay on my half-marathon training plan, despite the weather. Yesterday, I did intervals in some horrific humidity, and this morning I woke up to these conditions:

IMG_0029

Seriously?! Almost 74 degrees at 5:30am, and a SEVENTY degree dewpoint! It felt like I was running through a sauna. And then, when I jumped in the pool afterwards, it wasn’t even refreshing…it was like bathwater! Man, I hope this heat wave breaks soon! Of course, when it does, I’ll be complaining about the fact that it’s too cold to go in my pool. There is just no pleasing me. 😉 

5.  So now it’s time for the biggest positive of my week.  Just a reminder, first, though–you do know I love all things weather-related, right?  Well, this past weekend, I became weather famous.  How, you ask?  Well, first let me ask you: have you ever heard of WeatherNation?  It’s a nationally televised 24-hour weather channel…basically, it’s what The Weather Channel used to be, before they sold out and started showing more weather “documentaries” than actual weather. :/  On WeatherNation, they actually talk about weather all the time, with forecasts and storm reports and just all the cool weather stuff that I used to enjoy back when TWC was worth watching.

One of the things they do is show viewer photos to help tell “weather stories.” They also like to encourage viewers to send in their weather questions so that they can answer them on air.  Last Friday night, we had some interesting clouds come in before a storm front, and I took a few pictures.  For the heck of it, I uploaded one to their Facebook page and asked what kind of clouds they were.  I specifically addressed the post to one of their newer meteorologists, Jeremy Lagoo, who is a self-described “cloud nerd.” 😉 The next morning, I woke up to a Facebook notification that showed me that Jeremy himself had answered the question, with quite a bit of detail.  I was pretty excited.  But wait, it gets better. While I was doing my stretches before the run with Katie, I pulled up the on-demand Midwest regional forecast on my phone and let it play while I stretched.  Jeremy was doing the forecast, and he was showing quite a few pictures.  I was kind of hoping to see mine, but he clearly had lots of other pictures to show off.  But then, about two minutes into the segment…

WeatherNationClouds

No way!!!  He showed my picture!  But wait!  He didn’t just show it–he featured it!  He actually spent a whole minute of the 5-minute forecast segment talking about my picture. 🙂  Want to see it?  Here you go:

Ha ha ha!  So awesome.  🙂  That just made my whole year!  They even used it later in the day in the “afternoon” Midwest regional segment.  It was quite a thrill for me to hear one of my favorite meteorologists, Tracey Anthony, saying my name and talking about my picture. 🙂

WeatherNationClouds2

But it got even a little bit better when I watched the “Top Stories” that they do at the top of every hour.  They featured my photo again as one of the “best of the week.”  OMG, I don’t think I stopped smiling all weekend. 😉

With so many positives this week, I am sure as heck not going to let the one negative of my weight get me down.  It’s been a great week!!  Thanks for reading!

(Also, thanks to everyone commented on my last post about the pictures. Still haven’t decided yet, but you’ve definitely help me narrow it down!! )

1 thought on “Positive Things

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *