Obsessed With A Dress

Another week down in the Raise The Bar Challenge.  Yet somehow, my primary focus wasn't my workouts. I spent the last 7 days obsessed with evening gowns - which is not at all normal for me.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy dressing up a little and going out, but the last time I wore a floor-length dress (other than my wedding) was my high school prom!

Day 43: Pay No Attention To The Basket Case In The Mirror
Sooo...remember when I mentioned that upcoming beach vacation? The real reason behind that trip is to attend a wedding - which turns out is a black tie event. Cue: Me scrambling to find a dress that a) fits b) looks good on me c) is age appropriate and d) will travel well.  Mr. R&R and I hit the mall...for what would turn out to be a total bust.  It seems that my only options were to look like someone's grandmother or to look like I was desperately trying to be 16 again.  I even cried!  Fortunately there's the wonders of the internet and after another good cry, I placed a few orders and two dresses are on their way to me.  Hopefully something works out!

Day 44: I Don't Wanna, But I'm Gonna
I went back to work after four days off...predictably, my mind and body wanted to still be on vacation.  After work I hit The Cave for 30 minutes of Pump and Burn followed by Hard Core Abs.  After the Pump and Burn abs track, I struggled to get through Hard Core Abs.

Day 45: Half Way There!
Today marked the half way point in my Raise The Bar challenge.  I can't believe I've been doing this for 45 days and that I'm actually looking forward to seeing where the next 45 days take me.  I've been feeling stronger and leaner every day.  Tonight's workout was a new one for me: Pump Revolution.  It was a 55 minute suffer-fest. There were squats, lunges, chest presses, clean and presses, more dead rows than I could count, a shoulder track, a tricep track, a bicep track, and of course...an ab track. Oh, and one of my two possible dresses arrived today...and it fit like a glove (except for needing the hem taken up, which I knew going in since I'm ridiculously short)!

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Day 46: Hurry Up and Wait
Why is it that when you need something in a hurry it always takes forever? Case in point: My second dress hasn't arrived yet, but I have an appointment with a seamstress on Saturday morning - the last possible date I can take a dress in and still have it ready in time.  After a few phone calls and way too much time sitting on hold I discovered that Dress #2 is due to be delivered tomorrow afternoon, but still...I just want it to get here already!  I hate not knowing what I'm going to be wearing.  It's making it difficult to figure out what kind of jewelry, etc. I need to find.  In the mean time, I did another Hard Core Abs workout - which hurt like a beast after surviving the Pump Revolution ab track from the night before.

Day 47: Indecisive
As promised, dress #2 arrived on my door step today.  I ripped open the package, tried it on, and still couldn't decide which one I liked better, so since Mr. R&R was out for the night, I did what any sensible girl would do: I packed up both dresses and the shoes (which I'd decided on a while ago) and made a beeline for my mom's house!  45 minutes later I was on my way home with Mom voting for dress #2.  For the record, I think her bird also voted for dress #2 based on all the excited little peeping noises she made, but she may have just liked all the sparkly stuff around the neck! :)

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I made my way home and down to The Cave for 45 minutes of Pump and Shred.  I was convinced that my arms were going to fall off by the end of the shoulder track after 2 days (Pump Revolution and Hard Core Abs) of walking hovers.  I'm pleased to say that my arms remained attached and allowed me to make myself dinner and a berry protein milkshake while I waited for Mr. R&R to come home and give me his opinion on which dress to keep.

Day 48: Ow!
I woke up this morning and the first word out of my mouth was "Ow!" My arms, particularly my biceps, were so sore that it hurt to move my arms. The soreness made doing every day tasks rather interesting.  I guess you never realize how much you use your arms until it hurts to move them!  It certainly made putting on my dress (I ended up keeping Dress #2 after both Mom and Mr. R&R weighed in) at the seamstress' interesting. 

Fortunately as the day wore on, the soreness subsided enough for me to do the prescribed HardCore Abs and Flow workouts.  Of course that brought back the soreness (damn walking hovers), so Mr. R&R and I enjoyed a little indulgence of cheese and wine to go with my whining. 

Day 49: Mother Nature Needs A Calendar
I woke up with a little bit of a wine headache (totally my own fault) this morning, but that was quickly pushed aside when I heard the tornado warning sirens going off! Tornado season usually runs from late spring to late summer around here, so hearing those sirens in the middle of November confused me a little.  One quick peek at the Weather Channel later found Mr. R&R and I putting Walter & Spot into their carrier and heading for The Cave.  All told, we were in the basement for about 30 minutes and fortunately the storm swung out over Lake Michigan and missed us entirely.  Walter seemed to enjoy the field trip to The Cave since he spent the majority of the time scooting between us and checking out this strange, new environment.  Spot, on the other hand, came out of the carrier for about 5 minutes before ducking back into it and refusing to come out until we were back upstairs.  What can I say? He's not a fan of change!

We want to rename this place "The Bun Cave"

 I had originally planned to spend some time at The Track today since I haven't been running much and a bunch of my friends from the tri team were talking about making an appearance there, but the rather ominous forecast (tornado warning in the morning, tornado watch for the rest of the day, severe thunderstorms all day) made it seem like a bad idea to be away from home, so I settled for some time on the trainer instead.  I really need to start running more often. It's actually my favorite form of exercise once I'm out the door.  The problem seems to be getting out the damn door!  Hopefully I can remedy that problem soon.

Has the weather been unseasonably weird where you are?  What's your favorite way to motivate yourself on cold, rainy days?