Happy “Friday” to me!

Not really Friday, because it’s Wednesday. Canada Day is tomorrow, but I still have to work on the real Friday. Such a confusing work week, but welcomed holiday. Much needed.

So my brutal burn has turned into an unexpected tan. I’m multi-tasking here and talking to my Mom on the phone, cooking supper and modeling my new tan for you all. Fancy fancy. I haven’t been working out regularly since my 5k race on Father’s Day except for the soccer games I play in. So I decided to kick it up and go back to the gym and do a Boot Camp class (for the first time in a few months) — sure I got my ass whooped but the class somewhat flew by and I feel great this morning. Not sluggish at all!

Funny how when you skip the gym or a workout for … oh I don’t know, two months and just keep running that you feel worn out. Exercise = energy just like Kelly talked about on her blog yesterday!

Then of course I fueled up with some asparagus wrapped in chicken with some roasted red pepper something or other Kraft salad dressing drizzle on top.

Chomp down! Can’t wait for supper tonight. Mmmm my belly loves food.

Don’t forget to enter my DownEast Basics (clothing) giveaway — you have until July 5.

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Quick and painless cleaning tips (#1)

After a while of collecting some useful tips and tricks on how to clean certain areas of your house, I have collaborated a few of my own that I have gathered off the interwebs.Sorry I don’t remember where I read everything and apologize that I haven’t credited the authors.

Vinegar seems to do most of the trick, so buy in bulk!

Sinks/Showers:

  • Use a vinegar soaked rag to remove hard water stains from your shower head, faucets and even stainless steel appliances.
  • Use a damp dryer sheet to remove soap scum from shower doors and walls. Not only does it remove this unsightly film, but it leaves the room smelling clean and fresh.
  • Use Borax for removing hard water stains. Just sprinkle some onto the offending area, let sit for a few minutes, and wipe with a damp sponge.

Isn’t our shower nice? So spa-like. We just go the tiles re-done, after a really long sink + bath tub faucet leak. Pretty.

Toilets:

  • Drop a couple of denture cleaning tablets in and let them fizz for a while.
  • Pour two cups of vinegar into the bowl and letting it sit for an hour, scrubbing should be minimal. If you have hard water stains from the sides of the bowl, try filling the bowl with vinegar and leaving it to sit over night.

Drains/Pipes:

  • Pour one part baking soda followed by one part vinegar down the drain, let stand for one minute, then rinse to clean out the pipes.

OTHER:

  • Add one part vinegar and one part water to a spray bottle and spray down mold or mildew, then just scrub it away with a textured sponge or rag and rinse it clean.

Always keep your old toothbrushes on hand, they’re perfect for getting in the little crevices behind the faucets and in the corners of the floor, where the dirt can hide!

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25 min 5k?

I woke up at 5:30am today and scheduled my previous post to upload right as I was finished and waiting for the awards ceremony, teehee…

We started out towards the front of the pack, after many bathroom breaks before the race started we ended up being a smidge late to line up on the track. So I just picked us to go in towards the front. The national anthem was sung, and then we were off. First kilometer was fine, pretty swiftly at a 5:14/min kilometer pace, and we kept it up. Right before the half way mark there was a hill, and I didn’t even notice it. My breathing? Totally normal. Probably like I mentioned I’m much better at the first half than I am at the second.

The turn-around was closer than I thought – if you were doing the 10k you kept going down the road, and I thought we had much farther to go. Thankfully the first water station was around there too. I grabbed the water and swirled it around in my mouth and spit it out like one of those fountains lol. Hopefully nobody behind/beside me minded. I knew that if I swallowed it, it’d be jiggling around in my stomach and sloshing around. The second water station was about 20 feet away in case you missed the first one. That one I just grabbed a water and splashed it on my neck and face.

My running buddy was awesome coaxing me through the second half. We did the 10 and 1’s and walked twice. The second time I really needed it and I was really slow on my walks and should have kept a faster walking pace. My running friend kept YELLING at me (I love that though) to c’mon. One km left, right? She totally lied to me because I’m like alright, 1k left – not so bad. Then we were running for a while and I see the 4k banner. I looked at my watch and we were at 22 minutes. However, stupid me starts to panic. That’s where I died, I slowed down my pace (stupid stupid) and wanted to walk AGAIN. I’m like, no my boyfriend told me to just keep my legs moving and I’ll get my way there. I told my running friend to take off on me, which she did and I’m glad – because I didn’t want to slow her down. She’s ROCKING at the end of her runs, where as I die.

Anyway… the finish line comes up and I’m going at a snails pace. I don’t exactly know my time or minutes per kilometer yet because they’re not posted online. But we had to run around the every sooo long 355 meter track to the finish line. A few meters before the finish I saw one of my running friends from the gym and she yelled out to me C’MON NANCY… and that’s where I picked up my pace, for the last few meters of my run. I saw the digital sign and it said something about 28 minutes. But I’d like to know my official time and whether or not I was faster on the first, or second half. SO! I didn’t reach my goal. I’m a bit bitter about it, but then again this is the first race of the season right? I should be better by the fall. We (my running buddy and I) didn’t rank too bad in our age group… it was pretty competitive within 27-29 minutes for the winners. I was also pretty light headed at the end, and don’t remember getting my chip taken off. I was super light headed, like really. I couldn’t even chat to the people who were cheering us on at the finish line until I got some water in me and cooled down. Scorcher out there today.

Maybe I’ll inform you guys once I find my race results.

I’m way too lazy to re-read and proof read this post before publishing, so if it’s all over the place I apologize :)

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