Cathy Shows Up: Right on track

This title would have been way funnier had I posted yesterday. Several weeks ago I had set the Monday after the big Chicago shower and bachelorette party as the date I would start my 12-week half-marathon training program. It's a bit longer than twelve weeks until the race, but I figured I'd be repeating some of the weeks. I have three programs I'm looking at: the Galloway method, Hal Higdon, and some random program I found when I googled "half marathon walking training program". And you know what every single one of them said for Monday? Rest day. And so I did. See - right on track on the very first day!

Today was a 3-mile walk, which is done. Since I got up at 6:00 to beat the heat and humidity, it wasn't a problem. Now on race day I only have to do that 3-plus more times, and the 13.1 miles would be completed! I'm thinking this might be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. But I should be in pretty good shape and trained by the time the race rolls around. And by "race", for me it means "completion without dying".

I had every good intention of keeping meticulous track on My Fitness Pal of everything from last Wednesday through Sunday, and it worked - until Wednesday afternoon. Well, actually Thursday morning, and then I lost track. There was only one meal that was stupid - Culvers, where I had a burger, fries, and since we WERE in Wisconsin at the time - cheese curds.

Good picture for a healthy-living blog, huh?!

While I certainly didn't starve, and certainly had more than my share of cocktails, we did walk everywhere. We stayed at the Westin on Michigan Avenue and put on many miles every day. On Saturday morning, the girls and I woke up, put on workout clothes, and walked / ran (mostly walked for me and Erin, ran for Emmy, Kate, Aly, and Cari) for four miles along the lake. It was a beautiful day, and a great way to spend an hour with my girls.

Toto, we're not in Nebraska any more

While walking back to the hotel, we saw this HUGE flock of pigeons in a park by the Deborah Butterfield sculpture

This is just how a fire station should look

On the way home, Erin and Emily introduced me to a new taste treat - pizza at Casey's. Seriously. I have never given gas station pizza a second glance, but they insisted it was delicious. And since we had passed the Iowa City exit with all the restaurants, and we were hungry, we stopped and they were right! We were pretty tired driving home on Sunday, but you know what livened up the trip? Interpretive dancing:

I was SO TIRED when I got home. The two hours from Des Moines to Omaha took f-o-r-e-v-e-r, and since I had dropped off the girls, there was no dancing involved. Dwight and I wanted a fast early dinner and opted for Cheddar's - not exactly fine dining, but it did the trick. This entire meal (salad and four sides) was less than $7. Couldn't beat it.