The Return of Winter

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Oh my lanta, winter is back!! 😮

I got up at 5 AM on Saturday to run 6 miles before taking Jamie and his friend to the HSPT. That stands for high school placement test, and I guess it’s required for enrolling in a parochial high school. I don’t know if it’s truly required, or just strongly suggested. What I do know is that if he gets a good score, he can get a partial scholarship. So I paid 40 bucks and agreed to drop them off at 7:45 on a Saturday morning for a four-hour test. :p

Unfortunately, my alarm wasn’t working quite right, or maybe I just hit snooze too many times, but I got up a little late.  Because of that, I decided to do just 5 miles instead of six.  It had snowed just a dusting before I woke up, but luckily, the roads were just wet.

It wasn’t my best run, which means I was probably just tired after a long week of going solo while my husband was up north hunting, leaving me alone with two juvenile delinquents. 😉 I was really frustrated with myself for oversleeping and not being able to get in the full six, so at the last minute, I decided to skip the shower and do an extra mile. I figured two teenaged football players couldn’t argue too much if they had to ride in the car with a slightly sweaty mom. 😉 I did go back home and take a shower after I dropped them off. 🙂

After the test, I dropped off Jamie’s friend and then headed straight to Ann Arbor for a hockey game. As we headed farther north and west, I was surprised to find that it was snowing quite heavily.

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By the time we got to the rink, it looked like a winter wonderland.  But on the bright side, the boys had a great game, and ended up winning 3-2!

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I will confess, that was only their second win of the season so far, so it was a pretty big deal. This team is definitely not the greatest, but the kids are having fun, and they’re definitely improving, so that’s all we can ask. Plus, the families are a lot of fun to hang out with!

We had to drive back home in the snowstorm, and it was pretty miserable.

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The first snowstorm of the season is always a challenge here in Michigan, and when it comes this early in the year (mid-November), it’s doubly difficult. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay home that night, because I had to head out to see my nephew in the last night of his play. It was fun, but the driving sure was stressful.

The next morning, we were up early for yet another hockey game. By this time, the snow had stopped, and the sun was out, making for some beautiful views. I dropped Jamie off at his rink at 8 AM, and then I snuck over to Hines Drive for some pictures.

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For all the stress of the driving the day before, the snow sure is beautiful when it stops and the sun comes out.

Jamie’s team had another great game, tying a good team 1-1. That team had beaten us 7-3 the last time we played them, so that was quite an improvement! We had another hockey game for JJ in the afternoon, which didn’t go quite as well as Jamie’s. After that, we finally got to head home, and I was able to spend the afternoon working on pictures for both teams. Meanwhile, my two hoodlums were still grounded from all electronics after the fiasco from two weeks ago, so they found all kinds of new ways to entertain themselves.

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They’re playing Monopoly, which came after playing several rounds of chess. Mini sticks (hockey with smaller sticks and nets) was also a popular pastime this past weekend, as well as going out and throwing snowballs at each other. 😉

I was pretty tired by the time Sunday night rolled around, and I ate more than I should. I think I mentioned before that I have a real challenge in keeping within my allotted calories on the days that I don’t run. It’s amazing how much that extra 300 calories in a day can help! I ended up going over by about 400 calories Sunday, but since I had leftover calories on Saturday, I didn’t let myself stress too much over it. I’m starting to learn that it’s OK not to be perfect every day.

Monday morning was another 3 mile run, but man it was cold! Winter was definitely hanging on! The snow actually stuck around for a few days, because it didn’t get above 32° until Tuesday. It was really jarring to look outside the last couple of days and see all that snow, when it had just recently been so warm. There were still leaves on many of the trees, and the grass under all that snow was still green!

 

Despite the cold, my run was good.

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I have gotten to the point where sub-10 minute miles are my new norm for most of my runs. I allow myself to run slower for the long runs, of course, and then, I’ll slow it down a bit for my Wednesday run after two days of hard running. But three days a week I’m running in the 9:40s for three miles each time.  I can’t remember the last time that sub-10 runs were the norm for me!

So now, finally, I’ll report on my weigh-in. Last week, I weighed 122.2, which was down .2 from the week before. This week was…

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You have to laugh, right? Another .2 loss! I suppose I should be frustrated over the scale essentially not moving, but I’m really not. I’m getting much better at realizing that a loss, even a tiny one, is better than a gain!

I’ve decided it’s probably time for me to recap my weight-loss efforts over the last few months that I’ve been calorie-counting.  I’d liked to do a comparison to the Weight Watchers program, and talk about where I’m going to go from here.  I want to put some thought into it, though, so I’ll save it for my next post.  Which I promise will come soon. 🙂

First, though, I need to rest up to run 9 miles tomorrow morning—my own “Drumstick Double,” aka a 5k + a 10k, so I can eat more pie. 😉

Have a great Thanksgiving!  Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “The Return of Winter

  1. Belle

    The calorie counting has been going up and down for me. I have struggled with not losing or just little bits and then I’ll lose several and then for no apparent reason I’ll have a sudden spike up of 2 or even 4 pounds all while staying within an acceptable calorie count. I have managed to lose about 10 since September 8 and my clothes are fitting better. Never in my weight loss life have I had this kind of experience. I’ve decided to weigh only 1x per week now. It’s too traumatic otherwise. I am in a healthy BMI range – just 10 or 15 pounds more than I really want to weigh. However maybe that is being unrealistic on my part. I’m going to start making this more about health and not numbers because I think as long as I am not overeating and I am getting healthy exercise there is not much more I can do. When it is all about numbers, something of the human experience begins to be lost. Thanks for listening. I am confused by what the scale has been doing and it helps for me to just put this down in writing sometimes.

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