{Weekly Wrap Up} 5-13-16

I’ve decided to move away from my normal Bookish and Non Bookish Thoughts post and do a Weekly Wrap Up post instead.

After fighting a sinus infection all week, I’m finally starting to feel a little more like myself. It’s still there, but it’s not as horrible as it was earlier in the week, thankfully. I’ve been participating in Bout of Books all week and am having fun following along with my everyone’s progress. I managed to finish one book, and have done all of the challenges so far, which have been fun! This weekend I do have a 5k race with my best friend, her first race ever! I won’t be pushing myself too hard since I’m still getting over this crud. The rest of the weekend is going to be for relaxing.

Currently Reading

 

Recently Finished Reading

 

Book Haul

     

 

Blog Posts

{Review} The Obsession

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FitReaders

#FitReaders co-hosted by Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About. I joined FitReaders, because I thought it would be a great way to help me stay motivated. It’s always more fun with support of your blog friends!

FITBIT STEPS

Fri: 7,537 steps

Sat: 20,295 steps

Sun: 10,786 steps

Mon: 3,730 steps

Tue: 15,324 steps

Wed: 10,264 steps

Thu: 10,243 steps

Total: 78,179 steps

 

Bad week for exercise and steps. Worst I’ve had in awhile. I did what I could without overdoing it. I ran this morning for the first time since Sunday, but could only do 2 miles before I felt dizzy. I think it’s going to take a few more days to feel 100% again.

The 10k race last Saturday was awesome. I couldn’t have asked for a better first experience! The weather was perfect – 50’s and sunny. There were two wicked hills, and the last one was brutal for sure, but I finished in 58:23, meeting my goal of under 60. I’m thrilled with that! And I’m so thankful I didn’t start feeling sick until after the race. Tomorrow I’ll be running a 5k with my best friend – it’s her first race. I plan to just stay with her and not push myself, as I’m still getting over being sick and don’t want to make it worse.

 

{Weekly Wrap Up} 5-6-16

I’ve decided to move away from my normal Bookish and Non Bookish Thoughts post and do a Weekly Wrap Up post instead.

 It was a great week! Friday I decided to take a half day of vacation, surprised Sunnie by picking her up from school, then we met my hubby for lunch at Rocknes. The weekend was very low key and relaxed – just what I needed. I turned the big 35 on Wednesday, and hubby and I are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate. Carb loading before the 10k race tomorrow morning!

Currently Reading

 

Recently Finished Reading

  

Book Haul

     

 

Blog Posts

{Monthly Recap} April 2016

{Waiting on Wednesday} Sting

{Review} Once Upon a Wine

{Review} Tell Me Three Things

{Review} Too Late

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FitReaders

#FitReaders co-hosted by Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About. I joined FitReaders, because I thought it would be a great way to help me stay motivated. It’s always more fun with support of your blog friends!

FITBIT STEPS

Fri: 17,303 steps

Sat: 5,640 steps – Much needed rest day from all activities. My legs thanked me.

Sun: 21,627 steps

Mon: 20,310 steps

Tue: 16,201 steps

Wed: 10,340 steps

Thu: 16,306 steps

Total: 107,727 steps

 

 

I got in a 10k practice run last Friday afternoon, and had my best time (finished in 28 minutes). I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be for the race. I’ve been having some foot pain and tight calf muscles, so I’ve made sure to stretch every day, and have taken 2 days off from running this week, to prevent any injury!

 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

This is a weekly event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

• When I knocked on wood and hoped we were all healthy in our house? Yeah, that didn’t work. Sunnie ended up with strep throat last week. On a good note, the antibiotic works wonders and she was feeling better the next day. And now I hope the medicine is working out anything else that was lingering in her system, so we can have a healthy happy girl!
• I ran in the 5K two Sundays ago, and holy hot!! It was 80 degrees, and the race was in the middle of the afternoon (which was weird), and it was super hot out. I did okay, finishing under 30 minutes, which is always my goal. But it was definitely a challenge running in the heat for the first time. I’ve got one more weekend to train before my big 10K!
• Speaking of heat, we are finally seeing some consistent warmer weather in Ohio. Open windows and sunshine make me happy. Sunnie and I spent pretty much the entire weekend outside soaking it up! Goodbye pasty legs.
• I got a new car last night, my first ever brand new car. I love it. I think I’m a little too excited about the Bluetooth phone and iPhone hookup, because I’ve never had those features before. Doesn’t take much to excite me!

Nissan Rogue ❤

• I’m still reading The Obsession because I am apparently a really slow reader these days. In reality, things have just been busy, and I haven’t had a lot of reading time. I hope to finish it tonight, maybe. 😉
• This is a quiet week at work, which I am enjoying immensely after the stressful one last week. I hope you’re all having a great week!

In case you missed it…

Currently Reading

Recently Finished Reading

Book Haul

    

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FitReaders

#FitReaders co-hosted by Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About. I joined FitReaders, because I thought it would be a great way to help me stay motivated. It’s always more fun with support of your blog friends!

FITBIT STEPS

Tue: 21,113 steps

Wed: 25,061 steps

Thu: 20,206 steps

Fri: 20,820 steps

Sat: 10,065 steps

Sun: 32,544 steps

Mon: 16,792 steps

Total: 146,601 steps

 

 

I stepped up my stepping game this past week, trying hard to hit 20,000 steps most days, and also hitting my first ever 30,000 day! That day only happened because it was a long run day, and Sunnie I took a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather on Sunday. Plus cleaning house, laundry, and grocery shopping also contributed. 😉

I hope to get one more practice run outside this weekend for my 10K.  I’m slacking a little on the strength training and need to get back to working that into my routine this week!

 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

This is a weekly event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

• Knock on wood, we seem to be back to a healthy household. After a week of Sunnie battling a cold and cough, we have finally gotten most of it out of her system. Honey seemed to be the key! I was giving her cough medicine, and it never lasted very long. I started giving her spoonfuls of honey in the morning and at night, and it did the trick! We’ve now had 2 nights in a row of solid sleep, and I’m not a walking mom zombie anymore. I also swear by the Vicks Vaporizer and Vapor Bath. I hope that’s the last of the sickness we see for awhile.
• We had snow on Saturday, because Mother Nature clearly hates Ohioans. But thankfully it’s all long gone and the temps have been slowly warming up all week – with a forecast of 70’s all weekend. Bring on the sunshine! I’m especially happy it’s going to be warm this Sunday, because I have a 5K race in the afternoon. Every race I’ve run so far this year has just about resulted in frostbite on my hands. I’m excited to only have to wear one layer of clothing and no gloves!
• I finished Tell Me Three Things this week, and everyone needs to read this book. Even if YA isn’t your normal genre, because it’s not mine either. I have loved this authors previous adult books, so I decided to check out her YA debut. I’m rarely even in the mood for a YA book, but I started this one and couldn’t put it down! It’s absolutely fantastic – I highly recommend!
• Then I started Too Late by Colleen Hoover last night. Intense! This is the darkest writing I’ve seen from CoHo, but it’s SO good. I didn’t want to put it down to go to bed last night. Damn sleep getting in the way of my reading. ICYMI, this is a free book she wrote for her fans on Wattpad, an app/website you can join for free. CoHo wrote a FREE book as a thank you to her fans. Just another reason I adore her.
• I know my baby is growing up fast, and this week Sunnie surprised me by reading a book to me, and I won’t lie – it made me a little emotional. Not only am I excited that she’s learning to read, but it makes me so proud that she loves books as much as I do. It was a big moment in our house.

My mini bookworm

• Besides the race on Sunday, this weekend I’m planning on spring cleaning my house – opening up the windows and letting in the fresh air! We’ll be spending as much time as possible outside enjoying the sunshine. Sunnie’s excited to ride her new bike, as she’s been practicing (and getting really good) in the basement since Easter. And maybe we’ll even have a fire in our new fire pit, if the weather cooperates like they keep promising. I’m really looking forward to it – here’s hoping the workweek continues to go quickly!

In case you missed it…

Currently Reading

Recently Finished Reading

  

Book Haul

     

I also got these beauties…

TJR is one of my favorite authors, I needed to add her books to my shelf. One with You completes my Crossfire collection (need to read it soon), and I couldn’t resist getting a couple romantic suspense books, since that’s my thing lately. Damn you, Target, with your pretty books I can’t resist.

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FitReaders

#FitReaders co-hosted by Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About. I joined FitReaders, because I thought it would be a great way to help me stay motivated. It’s always more fun with support of your blog friends!

FITBIT STEPS

Wed: 16,664 steps

Thu: 18,208 steps

Fri: 12,538 steps

Sat: 21,301 steps

Sun: 16,267 steps

Mon: 11,050 steps

Tue: 20,463 steps

Total: 116,491 steps

 

Now that Sunnie is feeling better and we’re back to our normal routine, I’ve been able to get up the past two mornings and run before work. Feels good to start my day that way.

I signed up for my first 10K! It’s the first weekend in May. I’ve been training for it, and am finally feeling comfortable with the distance.

I love this movie. 😀

I also decided to download a Half Marathon app to start training. I don’t have any immediate plans to run one, and I know it’ll take me awhile to build up the endurance for it. My goal is to run in one by this time next year.

I have a 5K this Sunday, and it’s in the middle of the afternoon. That is bizarre timing to me – I’ve only ever run races in the early morning. I know there are some that do night/glow runs, but I haven’t run in any of those. I’m going to have to plan out my meals really carefully on Sunday so I don’t cramp up or feel crappy during the race.

 

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts

This is a weekly event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous.

• I’ve had quite a bit going on the past few weeks, and I wasn’t up for doing this post last week. We had a great Easter holiday – Sunnie loved her Frozen bike! Now if only we could get some nice weather so she can get outside to ride it. She also loved going to the Cleveland Aquarium. It was a really fun weekend with family.
• Because of our crazy up and down weather, it’s difficult for everyone to stay healthy. Sunnie is currently fighting a cold and cough, going on 5 days now. This morning she seems a little better, so I’m hoping it’s on it’s way out of her system.
• Last week I had to say goodbye to my 18 year old cat, Baby. It was an extremely difficult decision, but she had a stroke Tuesday evening, and at her age there just wasn’t a whole lot we could do. It broke my heart, and I miss her terribly. It’s never easy saying goodbye to a pet. I am so lucky to have had her in my life – she was the best cat. And the outpouring of love from all of my friends, IRL and online, has been so kind and very much appreciated.

• My reading has suffered a little bit with everything going on. But I am really excited for all of the great books I’ve added to my TBR/Kindle the past two weeks.
• As for running – I ran my first 6 miles outside over the weekend. I’ve been training for a 10K, and it was the best feeling of accomplishment when I finished in under 60 minutes. I am really working hard to build endurance and run at a pace I’m comfortable with, so I can run longer.

• We don’t really have much planned this upcoming weekend. I hope Sunnie is feeling better by then, and if not it’ll be a weekend of rest.

In case you missed it…

Currently Reading

Recently Finished Reading

 

  

Book Haul

    

    

    

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FitReaders

#FitReaders co-hosted by Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About. I joined FitReaders, because I thought it would be a great way to help me stay motivated. It’s always more fun with support of your blog friends!

FITBIT STEPS

Wed: 15,338 steps

Thu: 25,274 steps – only second time I’ve hit 25,000+ steps!

Fri: 11,754 steps

Sat: 18,204 steps

Sun: 21,113 steps

Mon: 17,116 steps

Tue: 17,555 steps

Total: 126,354 steps

 

So far, this week hasn’t been a great running week. I haven’t been able to get up in the mornings to run because of getting up so many times during the night with Sunnie. I had laid out my running clothes for this morning, but after being up with her several times in the night, I was exhausted when my alarm went off. I hope to get in a run as soon as I get home this evening. Running definitely helps me during stressful weeks to feel better.

I’ve also ordered a Kettlebell so that I can try some different types of strength training. I do well building strength training it into my routine for a week or two, and then I start to slack off again. Because I pretty much hate it, and I will find any excuse not to do it. Maybe I need variety, so that’s why I’m going to try some Kettlebell workouts. Laura over at This Runner’s Recipes wrote a great post about A Runner’s Love Hate Relationship with Strength Training.

I’m also interested in trying Kickboxing. I found some fun routines on Pinterest, and I think I’ll look into any classes being held locally. It seems like a fun workout and something to break up the routine a bit.