Entering November

Hi everyone, Happy November! Today is such a weird day because I've already been up for awhile and it's only 7:10 thanks to Fall Back. I love getting an extra hour but I just want to make sure that I use it well :)

Yesterday my weekend got a little thrown off when Eric's head coach (for the football team he coaches) decided to switch up the normal weekends because of his own schedule (kind of annoying that the head coach can do that at the last minute, but anyway). Normally Eric has stuff all day on Saturday and either a quick meeting or nothing on Sunday. Turns out this week, they had Saturday off and today he has to get up early for football stuff. Eric and I had a totally productive day planned for today, we were going to do some major wedding/house related errands. However, the change in plans meant we could not do that anymore which does mean I can go to the Boston Blogger Lunch- so it's not all bad! But it also meant that Eric had to get up at the crack of dawn today so we couldn't go to Katie's Halloween Party last night. It was nice to have the night in together, but I was bummed because I feel like I've done so many obligatory things lately, I was ready for something relaxed...and I had a serious plot to wear my pink pajamas out of the house again haha. Oh well...the start of November means only a little over a month left of the football season :)

So...I have a confession to make. I have NOT been good about my work out routine lately. In fact, until yesterday I had not worked out at all in over a week. This very rarely happens to me, but here are my excuses:

1. I went away for 3 days. I brought my sneakers and work out clothes, but I got no sleep and therefore had no energy to work out.

2. I was tired and busy when I got back.

3. It was parent conferences week. I had a ton of work to catch up on and a ton of time was spent at work.

4. I got sick.

5. My knee started feeling better when I was not working out.

Even though I don't think these are terrible excuses, they are just that, excuses. Sure there were days last week when I didn't have a spare moment to work out. But there were also times when I choose to blog or do something else instead of working out. I am not mad at myself for this. I think my body, especially my knee, needed some time off. But every good break has end and so enter, my November fitness goals. I think November is a very important time to have specific fitness goals. It's a time of year when things get VERY busy, VERY cold, and nothing going on around us is very supportive of being healthy and working out a lot. It's a time for self motivation, so...

#1 Bike 200 Miles by 2010. This will include any biking outside left in the Boston weather and indoor spinning class. I will post how I am doing on the sidebar of my blog. Yesterday it was 70 degrees in Boston (freak accident obviously) so I enjoyed a nice outside bike ride. It was a bit different than my summer rides because of all the leaves...

My bike was very happy to be back out on the road, it's been at least a month since I broke it out.

And my body was simply happy to be back MOVING again! I didn't want to go too crazy since I am sick so I just biked 9 miles but that's 9 miles closer to 200.

I am also starting a Yoga Challenge for the month of November created by Leah from Simply Fabulous. The way she explains it is that we will do SOME yoga every day for the month of November. It will begin this week with 10 minutes of yoga per day, and then build on that depending on how well we are doing. Back in May I tried to do a yoga challenge by myself and it died pretty quickly, so I'm hoping the extra motivation of checking in with someone else will help me out. Speaking of that...I need to go upstairs and do some yoga before I lose motivation on Day 1!

I Would Bike 200 Miles, and I Would Bike 200 More...

Today started out more interesting than the usual Monday when one of my parents showed up for their parent/teacher conference one day early! Yikes. I actually did the conference because I was somewhat prepared (minus having to shuffle through a few piles to find work to show them haha). So...one conference down, a million more to go!

Also, my principal cancelled our faculty meeting today because tomorrow we have a community dialog from 4:30-8, and Wednesday conferences officially start. This was fantastic for me because I got to tutor earlier than usual and then go see Eric's football game. He was playing the town that I work in, but I was rooting for him haha. Usually his games are 30-40 minutes away so it was nice to get there in 5 minutes. He didn't actually see me there (and didn't think I was going to be able to come) but I proved I was by detailing his anger towards #69 who he was reaming out when I got there. Eric rarely gets mad and I hate when coaches yell at kids but I have to admit it was kind of amusing to see him throwing his arms around but not be able to hear what he was saying. He kept walking away and then going back and saying more...it was really funny. He claims the kid is one of those lazy kids who does nothing in practice, puts in no effort and then gives him crap all game if he doesn't put him in every other second. Oh the joy of kids, even annoying after the age of 5.

Today I happened to be revisiting my "end of the year" goals from about a month ago. They were:

1. run another 5k

2. one week where I post everything I eat

3. go somewhere I've never been before.

Sadly- #1 will not be happening this year. My knee has been feeling a bit better but I can't risk bugging it again by running just yet. #2 I still need to do, hopefully in November when I have a bit more time on my hands and #3 I am going to count as Newport, even though I went there once when I was 10. I really don't remember that at all and I definitely felt like I was in a new place all weekend. Since #1 has to be eliminated I decided to add a new one.

Before December 31, 2009 I would like to bike 200 miles. I know we are coming up on Boston winter so most of these miles will probably happen inside. However, my gym just got new bikes for spinning class and they tell you how far you go, so I think I should be all set to do this. I think I am going to need the extra motivation since things are getting busier every day, and Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas are reason in themselves to work out a bit more. I do know that 20 miles a week of biking is REALLY not that much, but I want to keep it manageable because I do a lot of other exercising besides biking and I don't want to have to give up yoga, the elliptical and other gym classes. I got the idea from this from Bobbi and Caitlin's Pile on the Miles challenge. Sadly, they are not allowing anything but running and walking which means I really can't compete because of my knee. I understand why they don't want to get into crazy calculations but I thought I might have a chance to with Caitlin since she's had similar knee issues...I think I made her feel bad but not change her mind haha. Boo! SO...I will be doing my 200 miles by myself :) Who needs group motivation? Not this girl!

I don't necessarily think this challenge is great for everyone, but I do think this is a great time of the year to give yourself a big goal. What are your fitness goals for the holiday season?