FOCUS Grasshopper...

Ya'll know that I've been working with a running coach for a little bit now - Coach Tiffany with Thoroughly Thriving. And I absolutely LOVE it!! Having the guesswork taken out of the equation is so nice. And I really do feel like I push myself at least a little harder because I want to make my effort worthwhile. BUT at the same time, I know that I still slack off way more than I should. Sometimes there might be totally legitimate reasons for it, but really, 90% of the time that I slack is just because I'm losing the battle of the lazy brain. I know that. But you know how when you see some cold, hard facts it brings it all into FOCUS just a little more???

This morning I looked at my new week training report and this is what I see: Looking at October so far you've skipped about 28% of your workouts and modified 15%.

Just a bit of a gut kick on that one. I shouldn't be surprised that the hilly half marathon last weekend was so tough and I shouldn't be surprised that I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck for most of this week. Not when I look at the fact that I've totally and completely SKIPPED 28% of my assigned workouts. More than a quarter. And of the 72% that I have done, I've modified 15% of those.

So in other words, I've nailed 57% of my workouts during the month of October. Sure, sure - that's a little more than HALF that I've done. And that's not necessarily bad...BUUUUUUTTTTT, if this was a test, only a little more than half is definitely failing.

Why, thank you Dwayne - there are not truer words you could speak to me! And thank you for that dazzling smile while you're at it. ;-) haha

What it all boils down to is this. If I want to run a personal best at my goal race in January 2016, then I'd better focus and I'd better put in the effort. I can get to that finish line feeling like I got thrown down by The Rock in an epic wrestling match, or I can get to that finish line feeling like I just ran a hard race but that I just ran a race that I was totally prepared to run. And whether I meet my time goal or not - the real goal is just that - I want to KNOW that I put in the effort during training and that I really did leave everything I could on that course.

I will get there...and the effort and the focus start now!! My goal from my coach is to hit at least 90% of my workouts going forward. Okay, okay - game on, Tiffany!!

Question: How do you keep your focus on the goal?

So Much Has Happened...Meet Gavin!

Seriously, SO much has happened since I was last in this space. I ran the Hometown Heroes 5k a few weekends ago and enjoyed that race like I have the last couple of years - full race report will be coming. My new grandson, Gavin, was born! And I ran the Temecula Half Marathon - full race report to follow. I also got to try some amazing Hemp Hearts from Manitoba Harvest - full review and a GIVEAWAY will be coming. And there's even more exciting things in the near future...life is full of good stuff and I feel like a lot of the time the goodness is just overflowing, so much so that I'm soaking it in instead of talking about it all. *wink*

Since I'm going to be doing some race reports in the near future and a product review of the Hemp Hearts, today I'm just going to do a little baby sharing with you. I'm sure ya'll don't mind looking at adorable baby pictures, right???

Just for a little perspective, here's my daughter just a few weeks before delivering. She was all baby with that little basketball hanging out under her shirt.

Gavin Keoki Miyasato was born on Sunday, October 18, 2015 at 4:01 AM. He weighed in at an astonishing to all of us 8 pounds 6 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long.

My daughter was able to deliver the "traditional" way and with the epidural had a labor and delivery that was pretty standard. Nothing really major to report there. Dad (Curtis) was there along with me, the other grandma (Anita) and her twin sister, Michelle. So she definitely had a nice crew helping her through the labor process and Gavin got a very warm welcome when he entered the world!

There was a lot of waiting...

But it was all worth it!

Holding his Daddy's fingers hours after his arrival. The little dude is STRONG! And don't try taking something away once he has it...he doesn't let go. LOL

The new family settled in nicely and had a great couple of first days outside of being exhausted and my poor daughter coping with being sore and feeling like her body was totally foreign to her. It's always so weird to go from being pregnant, to being not pregnant in an instant. As your belly grows over a pregnancy you have months to get used to its changing size and shape, but then you give birth and it is just WHOOSH...totally changed just like that.

I think it's fair to say that the entire family is over the moon over the new addition! When Angelique first got to hold him she sat there singing quietly to him. I asked her if I could get a turn and she just looked at me and said "no" while shaking her head. And she was serious! HA! And Joshua loves his little "race car" - the nickname he gave Gavin while he was still in the belly.

We did have a little scare when Gavin had to be re-admitted into the hospital because he had some pretty bad jaundice. But just a little more than a day under the bili lights and he bounced right back!

And now he's back at home and definitely settling into this thing called LIFE! He loves to eat and is having no problem filling diapers left and right. He's sleeping pretty good most of the time too! We just love him...

And he even got to go out for his first visit to the Pumpkin Patch! I'm super excited to see this little guy grow through the years. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful life can be and how a little bitty package can add so much awesomeness to it!!

Sometimes You Just GOTTA GO...

Hey all! I'm super excited to share with you a new product that Skirt Sports is offering through a Kick Starter campaign! It's called the Gotta Go skirt and it has a really cool back story...Let me fill you in!

The Backstory:

Skirt Sports brought the very first running skirt to market over 10 years ago. Since day one our mission has been to help every woman of any body type feel confident and pretty while running. But real life often gets in the way of that pretty feeling...and sometimes that coveted PR. 

You know what we are talking about: 

• The not-so-glamorous struggle to get your skirt back up over sweaty thighs and glutes after a mid-run pee stop.

• The nervous glances over your shoulder as you try to be discreet and speedy behind a shrub when there is no porta potty in sight.

• The pads, leaks, or stressful tampon changes while running and racing.

• The embarrassing leaks that 1 in 3 women experience from exercise-induced incontinence, sadly prompting many of them to avoid running altogether.

On April Fool's Day 2015 we sent out an email featuring a Trap Door™ Skirt that allows us women to finally answer nature's call without baring our assets. When THOUSANDS of women responded urging us to make the product for real we realized we had struck a chord.

Skirt Sports has always pushed the envelope on clothing to address the needs of real women. But product innovation is risky for a small company. 

Hitting our Kickstarter goal will enable us to place a production order for the Gotta Go Skirt. 

If you want the Gotta Go Skirt -- if it is the piece of run apparel you have been waiting for -- it's up to you to make it a reality. If we don't hit our Kickstarter goal, we won't be producing this product. The goal is $35,000 and there is already $8,000+ pledged!! As a women's running community we CAN make this happen!!! There are a lot of early backer rewards too! Don't miss out...

Okay, so I'm sure you want to see how this whole "trap door" thing works, right?

Here's some of the actual skirt details:

The Gotta Go Running Skirt builds upon our most popular running skirt -- the Gym Girl. It has all the great features and flair that athletes love from their Skirt Sports running skirts PLUS our innovative new Trap Door construction:

• Trap Door: A flap on the shorties secured with low profile hook & loop means you remain fully covered on the go but have easy access to the Relief Hatch. The Trap Door flap is pad-compatible for secure confidence and easy swaparoos. 
• Relief Hatch: An opening in the shorties under the Trap Door anatomically aligned with your lady bits to enable easy error-free evacution when you squat. 
• Skirt: Mimicing our most popular skirt, the Gym Girl, the Gotta Go is 13.5" in front, 14.5" in back. Flattering lightweight fast drying AeroLight Jersey fabric (87% poly / 13% spandex) in black.
• Under the Skirt: Built-in no-creep chafe-free 5.5" shorties in black semi-compression mesh fabric (90% poly / 10% spandex). This is 0.5" longer than the shorts in the Gym Girl.
• Waistband: Wide mid-rise waistband with continuous drawstring. It won't muffin top, it won't roll down, it won't slip, and it looks good on everyone!
• Pockets Galore: Two side pockets under the skirt on the shorties, both big enough for a smartphone. One back pocket secure enough for car keys. And a super smart Sonic music port on the side to keep you from getting tangled in your headphones.

Who needs this skirt?

Any woman with:

• A race or long run: Whether you use the bushes or the porta potty, the Trap Door™ enables you to avoid "The Struggle" of getting sweaty clothes back over your sweaty body.
• A PR quest: Never feel you missed the target time you trained so hard for because you spent 15 minutes in a porta potty line!
• A period: The Trap Door™ enables quick tampon and/or pad changes without getting undressed, and the back pocket is perfectly sized to hold extra supplies.
• Athletic-induced incontinence: The pad pocket in the Trap Door™ ensures nothing rubs, chafes, or falls out when you are on the move.
• A smartphone, keys, ChapStick®, ID, inhaler, etc: Did we mention all the pockets?

And then there's this:

Because sometimes, you just GOTTA GO!!

So, I'm sure you want to know more, right? Check out all the details for the Kick Starter Campaign here  (affiliate link) - including all the various levels of support and the early backer rewards. I'm confident that Skirt Sports will be producing this product and this is your chance to be the first to enjoy being able to go when and where without worrying about baring your "assets" to the world!

Join the revolution - the campaign ends November 19 at 12:00 AM PDT!

Question: Have you ever had to make a pit stop mid-run? If yes, was it hard to find a place to go without baring it all? 

Run happy, friends!

Confessions...

Just kidding, just kidding...I *try* to live by them for the most part. ;-)

Okay, but really - I have some confessions to share with you. I confess...

...that I'm totally sucking at the blogging game lately. If I miss a few days it's kind of like when you have a friend that you owe money, but yet you always forget to actually have the money on you when you run into them and you don't want to have to admit that you can't remember the simple act of running to the bank so when you see them across the way out in public you change directions so you can spare yourself the embarrassment. It's like that...I don't want to admit to my blog that I've been ignoring it. Silly, right?

...I never spell embarrassment right the first time. It usually takes me at least 2-3 times to get it right.

...I've never watched any of the Shonda Rhimes TV shows. Yep, that's right...I've never seen an episode of Grey's Anatomy or Scandal. I know, kinda crazy right? It's not like I've actively avoided them, I just never got into them and then felt like the boat had kinda sailed already.

...Never watched any Shonda shows until recently, that is!! I totally confess that I just started watching "How to Get Away With Murder" and okay, I totally confess that it sucked me in from the very opening shots even though I would say I was a bit skeptical of the shonda-powers.

...I'm hearing the song Watch Me (Whip...Nae/Nae) for the first time ever right this moment (yeah, I'm behind the cultural touchpoint on that one too) and for the life of me do not understand what the heck is going on in this song.

Somebody that is more with it, please fill me in on this one because I'm feeling beyond my years with my lack of understanding here.

...I'm actually enjoying quite a few of the new Fall TV shows. I've been reluctant to get into new shows for several years now because I feel like they just retread the same things over and over again (see my confession regarding Shonda shows above) and to top it off, when I do find a show I really like it ends up being the one that is cancelled after only 5 episodes or something like that. But this year has some goodies!! I'm totally digging on Scream Queens, Limitless, The Grinder, Blindspot just to name a few off the top of my head. Scream Queens is by far my favorite new show!

...I really, really wanted to like Heroes Reborn. Like I defended-its-chances-to-my-entire-family-when-I-heard-it-was-being-rebooted, wanted to like. Annnnnnndddd...I found the first episode to be extremely uninspiring and boring. I started scrolling my Insta feed and that's definitely not a good sign. Oh well, they tried.

...I ate all the little Milk Duds boxes out of the bag of Halloween candy assortment at work. Every last one of them I ate all by myself.

So there you have it - all my dirty little confessions. Whew...I feel so clean now. :-)

What do you have to confess today? Tell me in the comments and I promise I won't make you do any hail Mary's. 

Vixen Capri Skirt Giveaway Winner!

I feel like a broken record at this point because life continues to derail me from lots of little things...I'm actually really tired of feeling behind the eight ball all the time, but I'm working on it!!

Anyways, I'm here today to announce the lucky winner of my Skirt Sports Vixen Capri Skirt giveaway!! Please join me in congratulating Jennifer D!

Jennifer has been notified via email and has 7 days to claim her prize! There's still a lot of Skirt Sports Ambassador Captain giveaways going so if you didn't win this one, be sure to keep entering those others that are currently running or coming up in the near future. If you like my page on Facebook I will continue posting the contests there!

Lucky girl gets to enjoy one of these hot little numbers!

Or if you want to just pick up some sweet Skirt Sports gear of your own, use discount code SSPQL20 for 20% off at www.skirtsports.com!

#REALwomenmove

I know you guys are already aware of how excited I am to be a part of Skirt Sports by being selected as one of their Ambassador Captains this year, but it is even more exciting to be a part of it right now because they are running a campaign called #REALwomenmove! And let me tell you just how cool this campaign is...

I think that Skirt Sports founder and CEO, Nicole DeBoom says it best:

That right there says so much to me, especially as someone that doesn't always fit the "mold" of what a fitness enthusiast might look like. I get inspired by fit bodies as much as the next person, except I have also had to realize that MY fit body will never look like fitspo fit bodies look like - you know you've seen them - the ones in Nike ads and inspirational memes on Pinterest.

But that's okay!!!!

My body has carried a lot of extra pounds and my body has carried four babies over three pregnancies. My body is that of a 43-year old woman. My body is one that is sitting in a desk chair for the majority of the day. You get it...I'm not ever going to be one of those people in a Nike ad with abs that look like they are cut out of steel...and that's all good. The point here is that no matter what our body looks like - our outer packaging - we can all be FIT and we can all be HEALTHY. We just come in lots of different packages with lots of different options. In the end, we are REAL Women, REAL Bodies, REAL Inspiration. That is Skirt Sports motto, you know.

To me the idea behind #REALwomenmove is that we all approach fitness in our own ways.

When I move sometimes I'm tearing it up by hitting all my training days, and sometimes I'm sleeping in because sleep is the best way I can be healthy.

When I move I chase grandbabies. I lift them, sometimes two at a time, I cuddle them, I tickle them, and I race them up the stairs.

When I move I sometimes do it gently as I'm recovering from a hard workout the day before.

When I move I sometimes take a walk in my heels because that's the only chance I get to finally get off my rear during a workday.

#fearless was my mantra for today's run and it friggin' paid off with a run that was so challenging but so awesome because I nailed the distance and I nailed the pace that @coachhenness had on my plan today. May not be able to run like @kathrineswitzer but I can channel my own #261fearless action! @261fearless @skirtsports #REALwomenmove #skirtsports #ssambassador #sweatpink @fitapproach

A photo posted by Kristen Grimes (@kgrimes526) on Sep 5, 2015 at 7:52am PDT

When I move I sometimes take a leisurely walk with my husband because sharing my day is more important than burning calories.

Because for me, many times being fit is more than physical fitness. Being fit is also about my mental well being. So sometimes it may mean that my focus is on building my inner strength instead of building my muscular or endurance strength.

And to me, that's what REALwomenmove is all about. Fitness is a lot of different things for a lot of different people. We can move in more ways than one and we can look totally different while we're doing it!

So join the movement that is already in full force! You want some inspiration? Just go on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and search #REALwomenmove and #skirtsports. And USE those same hashtags on your own posts! Because Skirt Sports is continuing to give "Get Started Scholarships" for every 5,000 hashtags - the scholarship includes a Skirt Sports top, bra, bottom, hat, socks and free entry to their first 5k! So not only are you empowering other women through your own sweat equity, you are giving a deserving woman or girl the chance to fall in love with moving too!!! So keep the movement going! There's a whole lot of women out there that need to know that #REALwomenmove in lots of different ways, in lots of different bodies, and at lots of different levels.

What does #REALwomenmove mean for you?

Monday, Monday...

Well, hellllooooooo new week!!! I have to say that I'm really working hard at faking my enthusiasm for Monday today. But sometimes, it's all about just faking it 'til you make it! Let's talk training updates!

Last week started out kind of rough! I had some fairly basic workouts on the plan from Coach Tiffany and the week before these workouts felt, dare I say it, easy! But this past week they felt close to impossible...I just felt like it was way harder than it should be.

Monday: Easy 3 mile at whatever pace felt good was the plan. How I felt was crummy...it just felt ridiculously hard and I ended up cutting it short.

Tuesday: 3x1 mile repeats on the plan. I did the entire workout of 4 miles, but it didn't feel easy a single time and I stepped off of the treadmill a few times to boot.

Wednesday: We switched it up a little thanks to my added fatigue so I just had easy intervals on the plan - warm-up for 10 minutes and then do 3 sets of 9:1 intervals at whatever pace felt good. I completed this workout and it felt pretty good mentally and physically to finally not feel like I was struggling to even move.

Thursday: Same workout as Wednesday (although I was supposed to do 4 sets of 9:1, but I missed that part and only did the 3 sets. Oops...that's what I get for not fully paying attention).

Friday: 20 minute walk. I loved this. Fridays are becoming one of my favorite days because I get that extra cushion in the morning and can actually go outside. I had an awesome walk and enjoyed being out. I finished the workout looking forward to my long run on Saturday.

Saturday: 1 mile warm-up followed by 7 miles at whatever pace felt good for 8 miles total; I could walk at the mile markers for 1 minute if needed. I headed out with Sally at 6:00 AM to beat the heat since we are still having above-average temps here in SoCal. I felt great for the first 4 miles and then it just felt like I hit a wall. I walked for a bit and felt a little wobbly like I had run for much further than just 4 miles at a very easy pace. I did 8.6 miles total, but walked a LOT of them after those first 4. I thought at this point that maybe my dinner from the night before was coming back to haunt me, or that perhaps it was Aunt Flo being the major PITA that she can be since she was here for her "visit". Wasn't really sure which of those was the culprit though...maybe even a little bit of both?

When I got home after running I did 15 minutes of stretching, ate a couple pieces of French Toast since my DIL happened to be making breakfast (runner's dream right there - coming home to breakfast!! Woot!) and then started up some coffee. And then I got hit with a wave of nausea...I thought for sure I was going to toss my cookies. I didn't but I got those cold sweats and weak feeling. It was not fun, but it did pass fairly quickly. Thought maybe it was just from the exertion of running or something and continued on with my day. I ended up getting a really bad headache and having a few more isolated bouts of nausea on Saturday and Sunday. So I'm thinking I must have gotten a mild flu and that's probably what was going on with me the entire week...my body was fighting something. I can't say for sure, but that's my best guess. I never did get physically sick, but my stomach and body felt "off" the entire weekend.

And today, everything feels fairly good so far! I really do think that I got a stomach bug. A couple of my co-workers had stomach bugs a week before, so I think they probably shared the "love" with me. Thanks, girls for sharing your germs!!! :-| But whatever it was, I'm hoping it's moving on now because I was really loving how good my workouts were feeling the week before!! I don't have time to deal with that kind of fatigue. LOL

My philosophy for this week is to beat the mental game. Coach Tiffany has me do a little reflection at the end of each week and this past week one of the questions was "Where do you want to be with your running in two months?" My response was: "I would really like to be mentally stronger in two months even if it isn't reflected in faster times. Faster times would be great, but I would love even more to be able to say that I'm comfortable pushing through discomfort."

So that's my push right now...I've got to find a way to break through the mental barriers.

Don't forget to enter for your chance to win a Skirt Sports Vixen Capri Skirt! You have until October 7th and can earn additional entries by tweeting daily! Have a great week everyone!