Friday, September 30, 2011

Five for Friday

1. I am a very bad blogger. No excuses. I just stink this week. I appreciate your following and the comment love. :)

2. I leave tonight to head to GA. I'm running 13.1 ATL on Sunday. Did you know you can sign up to track me?! haha not that anyone would but just in case you think I'm THAT cool you can sign up and see how slow I am slogging my way through the ATL. If you do happen to think I am that cool, just comment or email me and I will give you my first and last name! haha But seriously... I did just sign my hubby up to track me though. HE does think I am that cool. What? He DOES, swear. ;)

3. I might have started my whole pre-half marathon carb loading yesterday. It might have included some of this...

and possibly even one of these...
and omg was that ever good. Photo courtesy of Gigi's. I cannot thank my hubby enough for taking to my subtle hints that cupcakes make the perfect (to some of us!!) pre race carb loading treat.I don't regret it.

4. I packed my race bag last night. It is totally different running a race in a different state than right in your own city. I already feel slightly stressed that I may have forgotten something in that bag. I know it's just a half marathon but perhaps I need to make a check list?? haha Seriously though, I have the following in my bag...
~shoes, socks, 2 bras (these big, saggy girls still need 2 to prevent so much bounce), tights, shirt (my friend, her sis and myself all got the same shirt in diff colors!), BodyGlide, deodorant, Road ID, iPod, Nathan Handheld, Nuun, Honey Stinger chews and sportsbeans, Sparkly silver BICband... I think I got it covered. Can you see anything I missed? Oh wait, I do have my Nathan belt thingy because I was thinking maybe..just maybe I should take some tp and sanitizer wipes, ya know just in case? AND MY GARMIN!!! (I had to come back and add that after I hit publish!...whoa)

5. Speaking of running tights. My hubby bought me a pair of Sugoi knickers (something 200) capri compression tights... I know I botched the entire name but that does NOT matter. What does matter is this....those things are da bombdiggity! Seriously. I thought my beloved Nikes were the shiznit but when I put on the Sugoi and then ran in them...holy heaven in running tights Batman. I did a test run in them on Wednesday and they were great. Let me also mention that he ordered them on Monday from www.runningwarehouse.com and they were here on Wednesday. Can't beat that.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Well, hello there friendly bloggers!
Seems I have definitely missed my challenge to blog 4 times last week. oops.
Let me tell you how my weekend went...

Friday - home alone. Yes, alone. My kids were camping and the hubby was at a football game. So, what did mama do? Why she went to the gym of course. It was a schedule rest day SO rather than rest or run I opted for 30 mins on the ARC Trainer and did a 15 minute incline (4%) walk on the treadmill. Not too shabby for a rest day. AND rather than my typical Friday night dinner on the fly (which happens to be McDs) I came home and made a pulled pork burrito. I was very happy with how I spent my Friday night alone. My gym time allowed me to come home and get in bed early without feeling so guilty.

Saturday - Fun fun day! My friend opened a fitness center in her hometown. They are a small town and there was no gym there. It has been her lifelong goal to INSPIRE other people and fitness/weight loss is something she holds near and dear. She wants so much to help and inspire others to be healthy and fit. She's a two time cancer survivor and a weight loss champion. Here is a picture of she and I along with some other fabulous people in her fitness family. I had the pleasure of going to her gym's grand opening as well as meeting some new friends. Mr. O'Neal Hampton (former Biggest Loser contestant!) and trainers, Demond and Berkis Johnson. All three of them are amazing people and I am glad to call them friends. I even did a little working out while at my friend's new gym, which is very nice by the way!


Sunday - Hubby and I had planned to do our long run on Sunday. His parents were camping and they had the kids. Near the campsite is a local trail used for biking and running/walking. We decided to just go there and run. We've never ran that trail before but my friend Kelsey runs it often. I knew it would be a great place to run. Since I only needed a short long run this week we decided 6 miles would be good. We started out running pretty fast for a long run and every time hubby would ask our pace he would say something about scaling back and I would remind him that I was BEHIND him so I couldn't slow him down. lol We were taking short walk breaks every mile but even with that we were holding about a really good pace. Here are our mile splits...
1 (10:23) Felt good and strong.
2 (10:10) even with the little hills this mile felt great!
3 (10:53) gradual grade up, quads on fire.
4 (10:04) flat and at one point I looked at my Garmin to see my pace was 8:27, scale.it.back!
5 (10:46) Legs felt a little tired but kept plugging along.
6 (10:59) a little longer walk break than we had been taking
6 miles done 1:03 And this is how I looked afterwards...



Overall I am pleased with how this weekend went. It was a long weekend but very enjoyable. I'm in pre-half marathon mode now which means I have no idea what I am doing this week. haha I've got a lot of work to do to make my challenge goals. we will see how that goes! I may be a day or so late in posting my results.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Four for Friday

1. I was doing well with getting in my 4 blog posts this week as part of my challenge for September from the lovely Heidi. But I think I fell off the blogging wagon somewhere mid week. Oops. I'm back at it and since I am so good with my thoughts being all.over.the.place I thought I would just share these randoms! :)

2. My week at the gym looked like this:
Mon - ran 4 miles (41:58), BodyPump
Tues - rest day
Weds - ran 5.5 miles (56:32)
Thurs - BodyPump
Fri - not sure. I think I am going to run 3 miles, but may end up on the elliptical or ARC trainer.
Sat - run.. need to run at least 6 miles

3. My 2nd half marathon is coming up in 9 days. Time has flown by. I haven't really talked goals (or maybe I have and just haven't decided on what I should aim for) so I am going to do so now. Lucky you. I really really want to be able to go and enjoy this run. I can remember my first 13.1 in April of this year and the only thought I have is how great it was. I'm not sure if that was my thought during the race but it's what I keep going back to when I think about it. I want that to be the case with my race in Atl on Oct. 2nd. I DO want to finish faster than I finished my first half but if I don't I won't fret too bad. I finished my first in 2:28 so I would love to shave at least 5-10 minutes off that time. However, I am not 100% sure what the course is like but have heard it is hilly. Hills don't necessarily scare me as I have done my fair share of hill training. But we will see. My ultimate goal is to just cross the finish line. The goal in the back of my mind is to come in at 2:25 or less. We will see!

4. I was challenged to also photograph and blog about my meals this week. I am so boring. I've had almost the same meal for lunch every single day this week. AND usually I am too hungry to even remember to take pictures of all my meals. Slacker. Anyway, here is my lunch from Wednesday....

It's a spring mix salad with light/ff honey dijon mustard and one of those WW mini burgers. Nothing too exciting but low cal/low fat.

Monday, September 19, 2011

What's for lunch?

As part of this awesome September challenge I am participating in, I was given the task of 1) blogging four times this week (crap, am I behind already???) and 2) sharing my meals. Today I will share with you my lunch.

Let me start by saying, I am so boring when it comes to food usually. Breakfast this morning was tasty but no picture. The hubby made eggs and bacon while I was at the gym. We found these awesome 71 calorie, high fiber, wheat tortillas at the store yesterday and I told him how good they would be as breakfast burritos. I'm so glad he likes to cook for the family. :) I had an egg and white, 2 slices of pre-cooked bacon and a little colby-jack cheese (my fave) wrapped up in the tortilla! So delicious. I also had half of a grapefruit with it and of course my morning coffee.

Lunch -
Normally I would have some kind of Lean Cuisine meal or a WW meal and a side salad, some fruit... but today I had this.

Spring mix salad greens, 1 boiled egg, 1 boiled egg white, 1 table spoon Ken's Steakhouse light vinegarette dressing, 5 whole wheat saltines.

Yoplait Light/FF very vanilla with 20 blueberries, 6 raspberries (yes, I counted each berry).

I told you I am boring. Very boring. And by 3pm I was starving to death and regretting packing an afternoon snack. Sigh.

What did YOU eat today??

Sunday, September 18, 2011

"Date night" run

As part of my challenge this week, one of my fellow bloggies challenged me to have a date with my hubby. If you do not already know he is a high school football coach AND we are right in the middle of a very busy football season. I am training for a half marathon that is coming up in two weeks. We both are hoping to run a half marathon together on October 29th. So, to say we are busy is a bit of an understatement. Date night's do not come easy for us right now and neither do running dates because of the whole football thing. He has meetings on Saturday mornings and that makes it tough, especially with the kids, for us to get many training runs in together.

BUT! We lucked up this week. The kids spent the night away! Score.
We planned a long(er) run together for Saturday morning. I am in taper mode so I had only planned to run 8. The hubby felt like he could also be up for 8 as he is trying to build mileage back up. So, it was a plan. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it!) we had gone out with a few friends Friday night after the football game (our team won!!). This meant a little celebrating...fried appetizers and a couple of hard drinks (for me). This is NOT something I do regularly so it was a nice change up. We had a great time laughing and enjoyed the company.

However...
I woke up with a slight headache. We both woke up with "ick" tummies. But we dressed and headed out the door to run anyway. At about 4 miles I told hubby that I thought maybe I was done. I told him I would go one more (because that's how far it was back to the car) and that rather than go on to finish my last 3 miles I would run the couple of errands I had before picking up the kids. I just didn't have another 3 miles in me. I was however happy to have spent the last 54 minutes with my hubby running 5 miles.

We did most of our half marathon training together for our first 13.1 in the spring and that was nice. This go round has been much different and we have only had the chance to run together a few times. We both enjoyed the morning, minus the tummy stuff, and are looking forward to running together more when football season is over.

So, I think I can count Friday night and Saturday morning as part of my challenge this week to have a "date night" or just some time with the hubby enjoying each other!!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

TTT

1. Spin class rocks. I have mentioned before how much I love this class. Today was a rest/cross train day and it was a busy evening. I knew after running a 5 mile tempo yesterday that I was not going to run today. So, off to spin class it was. Tonight's class was a strength training ride. This means 45 minutes of climbing hills and running sprints...on.a.spin.bike! with lots of resistance! It was great though. I can still feel my legs burning. And my butt...those standing hill climbs are killer on the booty.

2. I log all of my food and workouts on MyFitnessPal. I have mentioned that before. Anyway, it bugs me how after I hit submit on my daily food journal it will bring up those red numbers saying, "If every day were like today you would weigh 157.6 in 5 weeks." On Sunday it told me if every day were like that day I'd weigh 143 in 5 weeks. Um, yeah. If I eat relatively sensibly and run 11 hilly miles every day for the next 5 weeks I will be at goal. Not.so.much! I would like to see the scale move though. However, I was just telling someone (blogger, MFP buddy, in real like friend...can't remember who) that it is rewarding those times when the scale isn't moving but you can tell your body is changing. My scale has barely budged in almost a year. That is insane to me because I feel like I look different and it's true...I do. I'm almost (I say almost because I won't buy them yet) a size smaller in my fave jeans and I have the InBody assessment that shows me the difference in where I was this same time last year. So, I need to focus on those numbers a bit more rather than the pesky scale. Easier said than done?

3. Challenges. Ahhh. I love a good challenge. They can be fun, they can keep me motivated and they can be tough! Heidi is hosting a challenge this month and I joined. It's fun so far and I am doing fairly well with it. I have a few more little things to log though. That should be easy because Ms. Heidi has also challenged me further to a few more things in the upcoming week. Be prepared to read a lot more from me!!!! :)

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Wrapping up the long training runs

I just checked the calendar and counted. 19 days (18.5 if you want to get particularly technical) until my 2nd half marathon. Just a little under 3 weeks left in my training.
Actually, I finished my half marathon training plan already but had to make some adjustments since I was further out from my race and the training plan I was following was for less time. Makes sense, no!? Anyway, I ran my last really long run on Sunday.

My friend, Terri, was nice enough to invite me to the local Fleet Feet run in beautiful Cades Cove, TN this weekend. She even swung by my house to pick me up so we could carpool. Score! It was a beautiful day. My training plan called for only 9 miles but the running loops in the Cove are for 4, 8 or 11 miles. I didn't want to cheat myself on miles, obviously so I knew I was not going to run the 4 and 8 was still to few. Why not go for 11 since I am still far enough from the race to taper even less?

So, that's what we did. Terri had 18 miles on her training plan. She's training for the Marine Corps Marathon! She's so awesome. Since I am no where near ready to increase my mileage like that she agreed to do the first 11 with me and at the drop off she would continue on to get her last 7 miles in.

I was feeling pretty well at the start of our run. We agreed to not go too fast. When I glanced at my Garmin we were around 10 min miles, maybe a bit less on some downhills. We did not immediately take walk breaks and ran I believe until 2 miles or the first big uphill before I was ready for a walk break. I probably would not have needed one had it not been for the hills. Cades Cove is no joke, folks!

I knew around 3.5-4 miles I was going to have one small problem. My stomach began to talk or maybe it was not so much my stomach but it's underlying tubes! haha Needless to say, I had an issue. I tried my best to keep going and even knew where the potties were. So at 5 miles I told my friend I may need to stop at the potties then my stomach hit hard. I had to actually stop.in.my.tracks. Stop. Ugh.

I found a spot in the woods and my friend was helpful. That's about all I can say about the situation! I am thankful for sure. And let me add that running + tummy issues = real crappy situation.

We did stop at the potty where I cleaned up, refueled and refocused. We were on our way again within a few minutes. The back side of the Cove is a tough run (for me). The uphills are even more brutal than the first half. I tried my hardest to maintain a good pace. We agreed to take walk breaks at each mile. My goal was to just run. I tried my best to tackle the hills but I admit that I only went as far up as I could before walking. My quads were dying.

I'm pretty sure we were fairly slow on the last half and that always makes me feel bad for those running with me. Terri already told me that since she was running 18 for the day she wanted to go slow. I was glad but had secretly hoped to be a bit faster than slow. Makes sense? We ended up at almost just barely 11 miles in a bit over 2 hours.

At mile 5.5, after my little accident, I forgot to restart Mr. G. Oops! I knew looking down at it for the next .65 miles something was not going right. haha But I was more caught up with the fact that 50 bazillion people had stopped their cars along BOTH sides of the ONE way road in the Cove and were out taking pictures, looking up in a tree! Yes, people THOSE ARE bear cubs! And let me also remind you that their mama should not be too far away from them. People are indeed nuts. Terri and I did NOT stop, but kept running and made note of the insane people. Of course, I am sure at least one of them thought WE were the crazies. What? Out there RUNNING this loop on foot rather than traveling by car and all. haha

We also saw lots of deer and turkey along our way. If you're in the area and are a runner you should definitely run the Cades Cove loop. I'm not sure that there is ever a bad time to run it..as far as seasons go. This was my 3rd or 4th time running and I can say that each time has been a different experience, even with the minor blip this trip, it is still a fantastic place to run. I'm glad to have wrapped up my double digit training runs with this awesome run. I feel ready to tackle another 13.1!!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

1.2.3 Things Thursday.

1. Pumped Up Kicks - when I first heard that song by Foster the People I thought it was weird but that it could be catchy. Friends made comments on FB about how strange it was. I hadn't paid much attention to the lyrics other than the pumped up kicks part. I run so of course that makes me curious. I want my kicks to be pumped up so I can run fast. More and more people were blogging and making FB comments about the song and one comment in particular got my attention... "such a violent song," so I had to Google the lyrics. Um, yeah way violent. But I still like it. I noticed on my local station the other day that they bleep out the words bullet and gun. Anyway, I added it on iTunes last night to my running track. It's gonna aide in getting through some tough runs I just know it. haha

2. I'm still working on my September challenge info. You guys know I procrastinate but let me tell you where I stand... I AM logging my food every single day into MyFitnessPal. I am also following my Half Marathon Training Plan to a T. And I have done 2 kickin' strength workouts this week. I was hoping to fit in a 3rd but unless that happens on Saturday morning I likely won't make my goal of 3 weights workouts each week. Boo. But BUT at least I got those 2 in this week because last week I failed in that area. And I am not going to fail this month. Nope. Failure is not an option.

3. I had to take my kids shopping for pants/jeans last night because with the cooling temps I knew they couldn't go much longer in shorts and after cleaning closets and drawers realized they both only had 1 pair each they could fit. I do laundry almost daily (or hubby does) and even so we don't always have particular items washed/dried in time for school. So, shopping it was. One pair for the girl, none for the boy but we will work something out. Anyway, I saw some jeans I thought I might like...flared legs. I'm a bootcut girl but gave those a whirl. Then I went to the stack of my fave cut and grabbed the size smaller than the ones I had on. Holy Smokes, the came up, zipped and fit. Then I snapped a picture and by the time I got them off and hubby was walking towards me I tossed the jeans to him and said, "Check out the size of those!" Size 10 baby. Ahh. For a long time that has been my "goal size" and while they fit I am too cheap to spend the money on them. I will either go back and use the coupon that was in my bag later this week OR wait and use them as a post half marathon reward. Either way I was happy they fit.

Monday, September 5, 2011

September Challenge

I am joining in with Heidi for her September Action Plan Challenge. You all know I love a good challenge and I am pretty sure it can be said that I need an action plan! I realize we are now 5 days into September but I swear I am working on the details of the challenge and will get all of my info posted asap. I'm quite the procrastinator and my mind doesn't work like I wish it would some days. lol

Anyway...
here is some of the info for the challenge. I'm just putting it out here to keep myself more accountable. I figure by telling you guys it will keep me much more motivated to meet my September goals.

1. starting weight - 166
2. starting measurements:
-chest - 37
-waist - 33.5
-hips - 39
-thighs - 24
-arms - 11.5

3. beginning picture? This picture is the most recent one taken of me from the football game this past Friday. It'll work!


4. cardio challenge.. I'm making the challenge for myself a 10k challenge. I ran a 10k (not race) earlier in the week. I would like to see how I can improve my 10k time. I very seriously want to run a 10k under an hour.

5. record cardio time. 1:01:43 for a 10k (6.2 miles)
6. strength workouts - last week I didn't get a single strength workout in. Shame on me. But I made up for it today with a killer kettlebell workout with my hubby.


Ok. That's part of the detailed list. I still have a few more things to work and will ge to those things as soon as I can. I am looking forward to this challenge and seeing where I am at the end of the month. Just in time for my 2nd half marathon at the first of October!! Stay tuned.