Inspired by #TheGoal30

Well I have two unfinished blog posts that I'm having trouble writing, but I just read about #TheGoal30 "challenge" and I'm feeling inspired.  The challenge, in a nutshell, is to create 30 small achievable goals and, in whatever order works for you, go about achieving them in the next month. Things you WANT to do, but have NOT been doing.  That's it. Reading through other people's lists was quite inspiring and I ended up making one of my own.  I have already decided there's no 30-day deadline on this for me.  (#wycwyc)

Here, in no particular order, are my mini-goals:

1. Bring lunch to work (AND EAT IT) every day for a week.
2. Log > 10,000 steps ON A WEEKDAY.
3. Go to a group fitness class.
4. Go for a solo bike ride (The Hubs doesn't really want to go anyway and that's OK).
5. Log all meals for a day.  CONSCIOUSLY.  MINDFULLY.
6. Finish one day with total carbs intake within goal.  
7. Make a green smoothie.
8. Go one full week without fast-food breakfast.  (yes, this is a thing.)
9. Blog about the 261 Fearless Coach training / Club leader retreat - it was AMAZING and so worth sharing!
10. Hang things to replace the holes mom left on the living room and hallway walls.
11. Use those dumbbells while watching TV.
12. Make a healthy choice while eating out.
13. Hit the gym in the MORNING before work.
14. Write letters to each of the kids (nieces / nephews).
15. Get out of bed without hitting SNOOZE.
16. Drink 8 cups of H2O at work.
17. Use those little sword-thingys and floss on the drive home from work.
18. Meet the Garmin step goal 3 days IN A ROW.
19. Write thank you notes to dog-sitters.
20. Use the Zombies, Run! app that you downloaded 2 months ago.  It seems like fun.
21. Meal prep something on Sunday to use during the week (and then USE IT).
22. Schedule a walk date.
23. Finish the blog post about Esprit de SHE.  It was fantastic!  I am a Triathlete!
24. Use the rowing machine at the gym.  Row a 5k?  I do not know if this is a lofty goal.
25. Shut down phones at 8pm one evening.  (this I DO know: it IS a lofty goal.)
26. Call my brother.
27. Hit the gym in the morning on a weekend.
28. Go rock climbing!
29. Take the dogs to the dog park.  Little Dude needs socialization before he starts getting weird.
30. Log > 15,000 steps in a day.
31. Revamp my Workout playlist.
32. Meet the Garmin step goal 4 days in one week.
33. Make that "Singalong Song" playlist you've been thinking about.
34. Spend 10 minutes training Little Dude.
35. Call my other brother.
36. Try a new, carb-conscious recipe.
37. Write a "random act of kindness" thank you note - to someone who made me feel special for ANY reason.
38. "Close the Kitchen" on a weeknight (dishes done, everything away, counters clean, coffee ready for the morning).
39. Hit the gym for a strength training workout twice in the same week.
40. Read for 10 minutes before bed.
41. Play Mario on the Wii for a whole hour and just enjoy it.
42. Get a manicure.
43. Do physical therapy exercises for my neck and hips.
44. Feeling FRUSTRATED? Take a walk!

Yes, that's right, I was OVER-inspired and ended up with a list of over 40 mini-goals for the #TheGoal30 "Challenge".  (Are you really surprised??)  Again, I'm not holding myself to the 30 days limit. 

This is not the first time I've tackled that phone thing.

I won't promise to update the list here, but I will try to.  Updates more likely to be found on Instagram and / or Facebook and / or Twitter.  Let me know there, how your own challenge is going!

Just a Little Ditty

Another long absence.  Things brewing that I don't feel comfortable blogging about.  BUT!

The Hubs gave me a shot of inspiration today and I want to share it. 

He was up early for no reason, and decided to take the dogs for a walk – this is unheard of! I'm the exercise fanatic around here who's likely to go for a walk just because I'm bored or because I've decided to start streaking... and he's the one who... accepts this about me, and sometimes comes along for the ride.  

This bit of action woke me enough to realize I wasn’t going back to sleep, and I immediately remembered the dishes that I’d meant to do last night. We’ve both been fighting a cold this week and last night I wanted to do the dishes but didn't feel motivated and basically I used The Cold as an excuse not to clean that sh!t up. So at 5:45am, I plodded into the kitchen and got it done. Took like 30 minutes, and I was just finished when The Hubs came back with Coty and Ziggy.  

Dogs walked, dishes done, and I was still on time to work? MORE, PLEASE…


Oh, and I guess this happened during my recent hiatus:

We adopted this amazing little trouble-maker in late March.  

After seeing this video, I couldn't help myself.  He was already our dog, he just didn't know it yet.  

He's adorably lopsided in every way, nothing symmetrical about him at all.  And we named him after the late, great David Bowie... With all that all-natural eye makeup, how could we NOT name him Ziggy Stardust?

The Story of Me, The Little Folksinger, and a Boy Called Patrick

This month, the folks at #261Fearless asked the Ambassadors to write, blog, and post about the women who inspire us, in honor of Women's History Month.  I am inspired by so many women in my life - bloggers I love, my grandmother's bottomless well of kindness, my mother's inventive problem-solving, my girlfriends' amazing athletic and child-rearing feats. Then there are the women I have learned about - scientists, biblical characters, writers, teachers, athletes, activists, entrepreneurs and even celebrity evangelists!

As I thought about this assignment, I kept coming back to something I wrote on my personal Facebook page years ago.  It shares a bit of my own personal history as well as my connection to an artist who has been influencing and inspiring me since I was really still a teenager.  

What I've written here is, I suppose, a lot more about me than about her.  But she has shaped my life, helped me become who I am.  Her writing continues to help me see the world through a wider lens, one with a sharp focus on equity, MAtriarchy, and empathy.  I love that I have an opportunity to share this connection publicly.  And perhaps some day I'll have an opportunity to thank her personally.

I wrote this post in June 2011.  I've added some links and changed a few names, but left it otherwise unedited.

My recent trip to Buffalo, NY for work allowed me a long-awaited opportunity to visit the headquarters of Righteous Babe Records, the historic building known simply as “The Church” which Ani DiFranco and the RBRrrmy have renovated into business offices, merchandising space, an art gallery and performance venues.  I was graciously offered a tour of the whole facility and the opportunity to thank a couple of the women who work to support an organization that has had a profound influence on my life and my little world.  The trip provided a moment of closure, a long-delayed end to a complicated chapter of my life that started almost 18 years ago.  I wanted to write something to mark the occasion; to say goodbye and let it… go.

The first time I heard Ani’s voice, it was her poem “My I.Q.” on the Puddle Dive album (http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/puddledive/l_myiq.asp).  It was Fall of 1993.  Nearly 20 years later, I can recite that poem verbatim, right now.  I won’t repeat it here. Too many of you have been forced to listen to it in the wee hours of the morning or in the ladies’ room at weddings or in my car, or… well, you get the idea.  The poem struck a chord in me and woke me up in a way that made me wonder if I had ever really been awake, and certain I had been asleep far too long.  Three minutes later, I heard “Blood in the Boardroom” from the same album (listen at http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/puddledive/index.asp).  I’d never heard anything before that could be described as both “feminist” and “whimsical” at the same time – it was like being struck by lightning!  In a word, I was hooked.

It was about two months later I learned I was pregnant.  When my son Patrick was born and placed with his new family in the summer of 1994, the grief I experienced was infinitely more profound than I expected.  I was utterly unprepared and I didn’t have the tools to deal with it. 

I credit MANY things and people in my life for helping me learn to live with my decision.  The Hubs and The Brother-In-Law caught the lion’s share of the burden.  They taught me it was OK to laugh and have fun, even when I was feeling sad or angry.  They gave me permission to have joy in my life.  They provided me a “free space” where I could be as bat-shit crazy as was necessary.  They made me feel safe.  Always.  The Hubs's Best Friend, too, put up with my need for a free space – for a while (and he was right to suggest a limit to it).  I owe these men a debt I cannot repay.

I was battling the urge to self-destruct, learning to cope, fighting my way back to myself and this process took years.  During this time I learned this:  the knowledge you made the right choice, that you did the best you could under the circumstances, is not the same as having peace with that choice.  It was sometimes cold comfort in the face of the consequences of my decision.  I believe some wounds never heal.  But with the right help, you might get them to scab over and maybe even stop the itch. 

In the midst of this turmoil, I had my family – including my amazing mom whom I cannot begin to discuss here – my friends, my ambition, my own naked determination to move forward… and when none of these were enough and I felt myself beginning to drown in my own sorrow, I had Ani’s music.  Her records were a life ring in a sea of grief.  They provided a focal point outside myself and I grasped hold of that circle of hope and it allowed me to rest, check out of my life for a while, return to fight when my strength was restored.

In the past 17 years, my relationship with all those who were there for me during that difficult time has deepened and solidified.  Ani, being only a few years older than me, has matured and continued to write songs that closely correlate with my own experiences, opinions and politics.  I believe my perspective has been shaped by her music as much as by anything else in these years.

My son turns 17 years old today.  By all accounts he is healthy, smart, and well-rounded.  He was raised in the same community his whole life.  He has friends he’s known all his life.  His parents were able to provide opportunities and a level of stability I could only dream about in 1994. 

I am reminded again today that I made a decision I can be proud of.

A Weekend Full of Firsts

I got to see three Firsts this weekend. I met a Woman Saturday before the  Miller Park Zoo Stampede 5K. We chatted over cold-weather running gear and #RunnerDog, and I learned she was running her very first race. She had been training for months, working woth a personal trainer to adapt a Couch To 5K program and strength training schedule. She was excited and nervous and so happy to be completing this First of many.

Pre-Race on Saturday

Sunday night at the pool, a woman taking her first strokes after a long hiatus from her sport. I talked with her just as she began. She seemed excited and nervous too. When I saw her afterword, she blurted out, "I didn't last very long." I couldn't help but stick around long enough to tell her, "Don't be down on yourself! You lasted as long as you needed to for your first day back. You just did something AMAZING and I hope that you are celebrating."

And this morning at 5 AM, your CPAGrrrl was up before dawn so that she could work out before a long work day. I found out yesterday that one of my staff (for lack of a better term) went into laborover the weekend, a month before her planned maternity leave. Everyone is fine, the baby's beautiful, but it occurs to me that this may mean a heavier-than-usual workload in the short-term. 

So I did what I do best: I made a plan. 

And here I am at the gym, 33 minutes into my long bike ride for the week, dictating a blog post. It is 6:10 AM. On a Monday, no less. 

Status Update

Hello everyone!

An update on what's up with your friendly neighborhood CPAGrrrl... 

WORK = CRAZY MID-JANUARY TO END OF FEBRUARY

I'm an accountant.  Other accountants need stuff from ME so they can start THEIR "busy season".  [Not to belabor the point, but I wrote this on Thursday and I'm finally editing, adding pix and links and publishing on Monday.] 'Nuff Said.  

RUNNING:

I have been in the habit of doing walk/run intervals for quite some time. I have begun to feel the walking breaks are more of a limitation I place on myself rather than a useful training tool.

One of my personal goals as part of training for my first triathlon, was to "step up my running game" a bit and use fewer breaks, get back to running at least 2-3 mile stretches without a break. Last night I had my longest stretch in quite some time, a 27-minute run!

More proof that my body does what my brain chooses to tell it to do!

[Bad blogger: no smiling post-run selfie!]

SPEAKING OF TRIATHLON TRAINING:

It's been going GREAT!  Here's a pic of my training schedule.  Yellow Highlights = completed planned workouts.

I'm into Week 5 of the 20-week plan and feeling great.  My shoulder was a little tweaky this week during my short swim.  I took it REAL easy and I'll see how it feels for my long swim workout this weekend.  If it still feels "off," I'll make an appointment with my PT to figure out what's up, but the swimming feels awesome, I feel so strong in the water! (My form is atrocious and my efficiency is low but I feel terrific.)

MILEAGE:

When I set my mileage goals for 2016, I had no idea there was a triathlon in my future!  I'm getting WAY more bike miles than I anticipated for the early months of the year (it's still WAY too cold here for outdoor biking), so I'm already anticipating blowing that 225-mile goal right out the water.  I'll need to reassess and revise the total mileage goal and the bike-specific goal.  And the # swims goal.  The plan was for 30 swims!  At this rate i should hit that by the end of April.

ONE AWESOME BIKE RIDE:

We had this ONE amazing day of spring weather last Saturday.  It was over 60 (SIXTY!) degrees, no wind, mind-blowingly awesome outdoor weather.  I had planned to do some laundry, take Coty for a LONG dog-walk and then do my long swim (as per my lovely Training Plan, sticking to that Plan, my friends, the Plan is my lifeline!) But when my awesome friend Raegan called and suggested a bike ride, I threw it all out the window.  I ditched the laundry, gave Coty a Quickie, dug out my bike helmet, and rode to her house.  From there, we went downtown for lunch, rode to the bike shop where I learned out what sort of bike I have (an "upright") and what sort of bike rack I could get if I was so inclined (the Really Expensive Kind), and Raegan gave me some pointers on tri suits, tri shorts, and the whole world of multi-sport gear!   Then we rode to the south end of The Trail, back up to the crossroads and east to the end of the Trail, then back to Raegan's again, where another gear lesson followed and I got to see her IMPRESSIVE bling collection. (We did talk about all sorts of things over the course of our 3-hour adventure, not just tri-stuff...) All in, I got about a 20-mile bike ride for the day AND got to spend some quality time with one of those people I always want to spend more time with.

A DAY OF HIKING:

The nice weather held on Sunday too, and The Hubs and I decided to make a trip to Starved Rock State Park.  I took about a billion pictures but won't bore you with those.  What I love best is that Coty got to join us for this adventure.  "Hiking" is something of a misnomer for what we did here, as the park is mainly accessed via man-made pathways - wooden paths, stairs (SO many stairs!) dominate, but I get why:  where there weren't pathways, it was MUDDY!  We had a blast and got about a 3-mile hike with the dog.  A VERY successful, ACTIVE weekend, I'm so glad I was flexible and chose to ditch my Training Plan for 2 days.  #wycwyc!!

I still have some other blog posts floating around in my head that I hope to get written up in the next week or so.  Things have cooled off at bit around the office so I'm thinking I'll be able to carve out some writing time in-between workouts over the next few weeks.  

I'll leave you with some pics from our day of hiking:

SUPER HAPPY #RUNNERDOG, EVEN AFTER THE HOUR-PLUS CAR RIDE.

Wait, I signed up for WHAT?

So I just registered for a new race.  In the registration process, they asked to get to know me better.  Here is what I wrote (partially copied from my Twitter profile):

I'm Chris. My occasional blog posts can be found at CPAGrrrlStrongerFasterBetter.blogspot.com.  

I run, I eat, I occasionally swim, I struggle with my weight.
I #wycwyc (pronounced "wick-wick!"),
I am a #261FearlessAmbassador and
I #StandwithPP.   

My crazy runner friends talked me into doing my first Triathlon and I'm writing this before starting any training at all, and quite frankly I am scared out of my wits.  So things are just as they should be.   

LET'S DO THIS!

So there you have it.  I'm registered for my first Triathlon.

HOLY CRAP.

How in HELL did this happen?

Oh right, my awesome crazy runner friends provided a TON of Positive Peer Pressure, and after several days of researching and looking up training plans and debating whether my relaxed approach to training could actually get me ready for such a thing, I decided to DIVE IN.

The course is described as:

The Gildan Esprit de She Naperville Triathlon is a sprint distance triathlon in and around Centennial Beach. The swim course takes place in the Centennial Beach Reservoir, guided by lane markers and swim buoys and supervised by a large team of lifeguards. Our “Swim Angels” will also be available as a measure of encouragement and added safety. The bike course is two laps on paved roadways throughout the Naperville area and the run traverses paved roads and paths through Riverwalk Park. 

They add:

Please note: there will be a a two hour cut-off time to complete both the swim and bike portions of the race (from the last wave). In addition, there will be a three hour cut-off time to complete the entire race (from the last wave).

.75-kilometer (.5-mile) swim | 21.4-kilometer (13.3-mile) bike | 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) run

The swim is, of course, the scary part.  I learned how to swim better about 18 months ago, and have been practicing occasionally since, using the indoor pool at my gym.  I was VERY pleased to find that "Centennial Beach" is really a POOL and not a lake environment, since I have a real problem with lakes.  [They kinda gross me out.  They're just like big stagnant pools of water, who wants to swim in that?  Yuck.  This California Grrrl says give me an ocean or a pool, please.] But I digress.  Back to my weak swimming skills.

YAY!  It's a pool!  Image courtesy Google Earth

Swimming a 1/2 mile is scaring the crap out of me.  I can barely swim 2 laps without a break now.  Speed will be of NO concern in this race; only finishing the swim.  A 13-mile bike ride will take me a little over an hour, and a 5k after all that might take as much as 45 minutes (!) but it all sounds like a cake-walk once the swim is done.  Based on the cutoff time, I will have to finish the swim in under 45 minutes or get serious about going faster on my bike.  Hmmm.  I think a test-swim is in order, and quickly.

I've gotten my hands on a free training plan that looks like it will suit my needs (and has a long enough timeline that I can build in all the flexibility I'll need to make that work).  And I guess I'm going to baby-step my way to participating in my first Tri.

I'll be #wycwyc-ing the HELL out of this.

I repeat:  HOLY CRAP!  Can't look much into the future on this one; one step in front of the other.  Step 1:  go for a swim this weekend.

CPAGrrrl, OUT.

2016 Goals: Gym Visits

With the new year approaching, I have of course been contemplating fitness goals for 2016.  I think we're all aware that I tend to be loquacious and I thought as a favor to us all, I'd break this up into a couple of shorter posts.  See GOALS, part 1 here.

Image source: Jawbone Email

2016 GOALS, part 2 -

Total Number of GYM VISITS: 

I wanted to make this an explicit goal for the year.  Something that I actually measure and track in my daily running log, which by the way, I am still using this year, all the way at the end of the year.  (That's a major accomplishment - never made it past summer months before.)  But I wasn't sure exactly what the goal should be, so here's my thought process:

52 *should * be easy... 150 is clearly too hard. Wait, how many times / how often did I get in there THIS year?  Fun Fact:  I can check that using my LAFitness app...

Check out this pattern:



So it turns out, yes, averaging once a week SHOULD be easy, since it's what I'm already doing.

Tripling that to 3 times a week just strikes me as impossible, setting myself up for failure.  So that's out.

Doubling it, though?  Seems daunting but if I'm committed to increasing my gym visits (translation:  actually DOING strength training and swimming more often), then making the habit stick should be tough but doable for the first 6 weeks, then easier, until I hit my Really Busy last-three-months of the year. And by then, all I have to do is remember that Gym Time is My ME Time, and hit it on the days when I've had a bad day and I'm feeling maybe a little bit stabby.

And, on the advise of The Hubs, amp that goal up by 10%, because if it sounds "doable", it's probably just a little too easy.  So then, 51 * 2 * 110% = 112.2.  Let's call it 110.

OTHER GOALS:

Remaining goals for the year are basically tangential... and should be achieved as part of these two larger Mileage and Gym Visits goals.  But for the record,

I am setting a goal of 30 swim sessions (counts as a gym visit)

I would like to incorporate some additional speed work into my running training programs.  The point of the speed work is to get back to running comfortably at an 11:30 pace.  To that end,

I am setting a goal of a Sub-35-minute 5k.  

The last time I set a similar goal, I hit it at the St. Patrick's Day race, so on the off-chance that happens again, I'm upping the ante already to a sub-34 5k.  My PR is 34:32 at an 11:07 pace. (Let's hope I need to refer back to this in 2016 to remember what I said.)

And yes,

I am setting a weight-loss goal for the year:  25 30 pounds.  

I am reticent about declaring this goal.  This may be worthy of a blog post of its own, but it's a post I'd rather not write so I'll keep it short.  My current weight is about 202 and has been steady within a couple of pounds of that number for most of the past year, despite all my activity.  Some of that was beyond my control, but that's over now.

I'm owning it.  I'm clinically obese and losing 25 pounds doesn't get me out of that classification.  But I'm over 40 and weight loss has proven MUCH more difficult since reaching that milestone.  I'm shooting for realistic, attainable goals.

But, again applying The Hubs's "amp it up" rule... let's make it 30 lbs.  According to the CDC, that gets me into the "overweight" category at 172.  I'm going to have to make some diet changes to get there, but I'm gonna #wycwyc the hell out of it.  That's all I have to say about that.

I'm ready to make next week the start of 365 days of Owning It.  As the tag-line says... It's MY life.

I'm going to LIVE it.  

I'm going to RUN it.

Image from SheBlogs