December...so far

Well, the month is just trucking along, isn't it? We're practically one week into December, and its becoming serious crunch time for Christmas and end-of-year preparations. And I would be remiss if I forgot to mention that out tree is still upright.

(thank you thank you thank you)

We have, however, lost seven ornaments to date.

Which equals just over one per day. I'm sure the Mini Monster's average will go down now that she's swatted most of the lower placed ornaments. But if its one thing I've learned with that cat - you never can tell.
One of these days, I know she'll aim for the birds at the top. I've already seen her eying them from The Ugly Green Recliner, her favorite perch.

We shall see...

In other news, I attended my first Pilates class in years. It wasn't pretty and even though I knew the basic moves, I soon found myself lost at the teacher's confusing instructions. One moment I was executing decent "roll ups" when we suddenly fast forwarded six moves beyond my comprehension. I was left befuddled, shaking while holding the pose, and trying my best to not to fart from the exertion.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one. God Bless Old People; the pair of octogenarians directly in front of me were as befuddled as I was, only they were vocal about their confusion. And its not like the instructor could ignore their discontent...she quickly placed herself on the floor with the rest of us and demonstrated the moves for the class.

It was wonderful.

And even though once a long long time ago (and in a galaxy far far away) I used to teach aerobics classes and dealt with my own crowd of vocal octogenarians; during last Friday's class, I developed a new appreciation for the very same people that made my job more difficult.

In work out news, I'm continuing to truck along - easing my way through single workout days. Biking has been great, and I've enjoyed coastal views and exploring routes that I take but never actually see because I'm usually so focused on holding x watts or y heart rate. Running is a little more tricky; I don't ever remember being so slow. Even though I know - for a fact - that I have been.
I just feel slow.

Do I blame Ironman?

Perhaps...a little.

But more than racing in Hawaii, while reviewing my Training Peaks schedule, I realized that I really haven't trained much in the past two and a half months since starting my taper. And even then, my workouts were far from ideal as I was fighting off illness. So...it's almost as though I've done very little in the past three months, except for a random Ironman thrown in at the beginning for good measure.

Well, no wonder why I feel slow.

However, I'm not going to complain. No way. Not at all; I GET to run, I can enjoy the experience, the sights, the sounds - even if I'm left breathless in the process. So no complaining from me... At least not until after the New Year. And hopefully (fingers crossed, knock on wood, and all that other good stuff) - by then I'll be feeling more like myself because I've had a solid month of training under my belt.
And finally, I'm trying to get creative with Christmas presents this year... But as my parents read the blog, I can say no more. Except that I spent the majority of Sunday looking at the computer screen trying to organize, um...certain things...in a nice, presentable way.

But that's all I'm sayin'. I swear.

Tomorrow I've got my first swim in months on tap. Thankfully I'm not swimming Masters. That, my friends, would be really ugly. Nope - just technique, drills, and form focus...but it's a start. It's a great start.

Now...back to the computer screen...and...organizing....more stuff.

And that's all I'm saying....