Marathon Reflections.

Wow, I really made it a long time before including the word “Marathon” in a post, huh?  or not?!  I won’t make promises but I am thinking this will be the last marathon focused post and then I will move on.  It just seems like I should rant on a little bit longer since I have been training so damn long for this thing!  I should at least be able to milk it out for awhile, right?

Must locate one of these bumper stickers….

So anyways, I wrote my full recap Sunday night and Monday.  It’s now a few days later and I have had the chance to realize a few more things about running a marathon/becoming a marathoner.

1) I am now a marathoner for life.  There is no going back and it’s not something that can be taken away.  When I am 80 years old, I will be able to still call myself a marathoner.  That is pretty darn cool if you ask me!

2) My legs didn’t feel too bad on Monday but then by Tuesday, I could hardly move… my calves were SO tight.  Not really so much sore as tight and almost felt disconnected from my body.  Hopefully acupuncture helps with this…

3) It’s so anti-climatic.  For being something I have wanted to do for so long and dreamed about so many times, now that it’s over, I can’t really say my life is any different.  Not that I really expected that to happen but you know… kind of the same with birthdays, graduation, etc.  Nothing is really different.  But I do now have more proof that if I put my mind to something, I can pull it off.  Even with a few bumps in the road!

4) I am always going to eat tons of ice cream after a marathon/long run.  I normally end up feeling really weird and sluggish after long runs/races but since I consumed my weight in ice cream and blizzards on Sunday, I felt none of that!  I calculated I likely had 10+ servings of dairy (in the form of chocolate milk, cheese, ice cream and regular milk that I had a random craving for later after dinner) which is about 9 more than I normally have.  Maybe all the calcium helped? So weird!

I would gladly eat ice cream EVERY single day!

5) Even when running the marathon, I didn’t really believe I was doing it.  I think I tried to deny it so long, my body and mind never believed anything different?!  Also, I think the lack of crowds at this race helped feed that anti-climatic feeling.  But on another hand, when I realized I was getting close to the finish line, I was there!  No weaving and getting psyched out about that!  And nobody to piss off when I went sprinting past them like I did at Bellin.

6) I thought I would really want a long break from running but I already kind of miss it.  Not so much the 5+ mile runs but the short, fun ones!

7)  I am even more excited about the Disney Marathon now!  I know it’s almost 7 months away but I’m still excited to see what I can learn and use for future training cycles.

8) I don’t know when I will tire of training for and running races.  For whatever reason, I really like them!  I love that sense of overwhelming accomplishment you feel for a few days after a really good race.  Now I just wish I could get my body to rest up a little so I can train to my fullest potential!  It’s taking all my self restraint to avoid scouring Active.com to sign up for more races right now.

Now that this marathon is over and I am breaking from running for a few weeks, I am totally at a loss for what to post on here though.  So if all of a sudden I disappear for the next 4-5 weeks, don’t be too alarmed  I’m probably just walking around with my medal around my neck, reliving the moment I became a marathoner!

Marathon Motivation.

I would apologize for the fact that every post this week is going to be about Marathons but I don’t feel like it.  You only have one first marathon and this is mine and I want to live this up!  So be warned, the word Marathon will probably be in the rest of this weeks posts roughly 2,834 times.

Last week Sister was looking for a quote to include in a work bio she was working on.  Long story short she ended up not wanting to add one but in the process, I found a few good quotes that I wanted to think about and remember in these days leading up to the Cellcom.   Here are my favorites:

If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon. - Emil Zatopek

“In the first half of the race, don’t be an idiot. In the second half, don’t be a wimp!” - SCOTT DOUGLAS

“If you feel bad at 10 miles, you’re in trouble. If you feel bad at 20 miles, you’re normal. If you don’t feel bad at 26 miles, you’re abnormal.” - ROB DE CASTELLA, WINNER 1983 WORLD MARATHON CHAMPIONSHIPS

“The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals.” - HAL HIGDON, RUNNING WRITER AND COACH

“Anyone can run 20 miles. It’s the next six that count.” - BARRY MAGEE

“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” - KATHRINE SWITZER, WOMEN’S MARATHONING PIONEER

“At mile 20, I thought I was dead. At mile 22, I wished I was dead. At mile 24, I knew I was dead. At mile 26.2, I realized I had become too tough to kill.” – unknown

“There will be days you don’t think you can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime of knowing you have.” – unknown

This one is appropriate considering I will be starting and finishing outside Lambeau stadium!

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” - Vince Lombardi

“Step one to running a marathon: You run. There is no step two.” – Barney Stinson aka Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother

And if those quotes are not motivation enough for me to want to go out there and kick some booty, I read this story earlier this week that sent chills down my spine.  This women is amazing and makes me realize how much I take for granted.

Mission Marathon Motivation: Accomplished!

PS And if all that was not enough motivation, I have this awesome medal waiting for me at the finish line!!!!

And that is football shaped…NOT a squished photo!

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

I shoulda had a “shorter” run this weekend to begin taper time for this upcoming marathon thing but I knew if I did that I woulda regretted it come May 20th because I would have tapered for 5 weeks or so and would feel totally unprepared instead of just semi-unprepared…

I know I coulda hurt myself running this morning or something but I figured that would just be a sign I need to wait to have my first marathon be a different one.  Because really, what difference would a week make if I injured myself on a run?  Probably nothing.  Three weeks to heal versus two weeks to heal does not really seem like a huge thing to me and I know the confidence I have from my run this morning is worth so much more than “playing it safe.” Sometimes you gotta live a little on the edge  So instead I decided to tackle one more 20 miler and just be careful and call it quits if anything got sore or started feeling weird.

This ended up being the best decision I have made in training thus far.  My run this morning went awesome!  When I woke up this morning, it was POURING rain and there were storms in the forecast but I decided to not get all worked up about this until my planned departure time came.  And you know what?  The rain stopped and the wind died down right on time!  I coulda stressed out about this but I did not.  Instead I ended up with the perfect running conditions, 50ish degrees and light winds.  Enough to not be cold but not be hot either.  Also, the sun never fully peaked out so that helped keep things comfortable too!

I left at about 7:45am this morning and went out a 10ish mile loop with plans to stop back at the house to get a water and Gu refill.  I am glad I ended up doing this because it gave me time to ask Sister to pick up a bag of ice for me for recovery and stretch a little and get more fluids and gels.  After the brief break, it was off for another 9.2 mile loop!

To play things a little safe this morning, I decided to run 5 minutes and walk 1 minute.  I am still surprised how much better this routine works for me!  Time goes so much quicker for some reason even though I get a little confused about when to turn around, take a shot, etc.  In theory, using the Galloway method shoulda slowed me down a little.  I mean I spend 30+ minutes walking… but instead, it took me 10 minutes LESS than my last 20 miler!  I woulda put up the splits so you could see them but um… I have a total of 66 laps from my run this morning because each walk/run interval counts as a lap.  I wish I could readjust this at the end though… I might have to see if I can do anything about that!

My total time running this morning was 3:18, that is an average of 9:55!  This shoulda felt like forever but once again I was surprised how time really does weird things when you are running.  3 hours at work would feel like forever but yet when I am running, time just goes by so fast!  I would be lying if I said this did not give me just a little morsel of hope for finishing the marathon in less than 4:30.  I really don’t want to stress about finish time for my first ever full but it’s hard to not do the math on this and see I would have about the perfect amount of time to finish a 10K if I could keep this pace the first 20 miles on the 20th.  I guess only time will tell on this one but I will use it as a little bit of motivation!

I probably shoulda spent the time on this run pondering deep thoughts but instead of that, I spent many miles dreaming of my post run eats!  One house I ran by was cooking breakfast potatoes and once I smelled them, that is all I could think about for a good 3-4 miles  So of course, I spent the next 3-4 miles coming up with a way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and also get my fried potatoes in!

Fried potatoes, ground beef, guacamole, hot sauce and 2% Chobani! I could eat this after every long run!

I probably also shoulda tried to take a nap this afternoon to rest up for babysitting tonight but instead Sister and I went to the grocery store and watched a few episodes of Lost!  Hopefully I can manage to stay awake long enough for the kids to fall asleep first tonight  I feel oddly awake at the moment but that will likely fade…

In hindsight, this run coulda went really poorly and left me more freaked out about Marathon Day but instead I pulled off another awesome 20 mile run and am now slightly more confident in the fact I have trained enough to make it across the finish line on May 20th.  Likely not in my secret goal time but that will just give me something to work for at the next marathon, right?

Now Taper Time officially begins!  It’s all downhill from here and soon I will be in Green Bay getting ready to cross a Marathon off my life list.  I really find this hard to believe yet it’s kind of starting to sink in now since this last training run is over.  A few short runs this week, a semi-long (8-10 miler) run next weekend and then really easy runs the week of and I will be totally done with training!  Crazy!  Here goes nothing!

Longest 7 minutes of my life.

Well, I made it.  I ran 18 miles.  And now my legs hurt and I am tired.  Surprising, no?  Yeah, I didn’t think so  I really didn’t know what to expect for this run and I am still not sure what to think of it but let’s go back to the beginning of the morning and recap, shall we?  (I apologize in advance for the length of this post.  It was a busy morning!)

The morning did not start out on an excellent note…I woke up at 2:30am after having a freaky dream that literally had me shaking when I woke up…  this would be a bad dream to have any night of the week but especially this night when I was the only one in the house.  Excellent.  I finally got back to sleep a little while later but then my alarm went off at about 5am and I was still super freaked out by this nightmare and tired to boot.  I was also now sure that someone was going to be stalking/chasing me later on my run as well… great  So all these messed up thoughts were going through my head at this point and I almost thought about postponing this run until tomorrow but finally got my self back to reality and realized dreams are not real and I would be fine… lol  Some coffee and breakfast may have helped play a part in this reality check?!

I actually switched things up this week after being so starving when I left last week.  I finally decided maybe I was up for tackling an actual breakfast instead of just rice cakes that I am pretty sure keep me full about 37 seconds… I have had this massive craving for frozen waffles for the past two weeks so made an impulse purchase at the grocery store yesterday afternoon and picked up a box of Kinnikinnick gluten free waffles.  They have zero nutritious value but I figured would be easy enough to digest then.  These turned out to be an excellent choice!  They tasted really good and kept me full until the 5 mile point which is all I ask of my pre-run breakfast!  I had them with a little peanut butter and jelly for toppings.

Because of my freaked out state this morning, I had to figure out a mental plan for my run this morning.  Also, I had no options of calling someone to pick me up if I could not make it so I didn’t want to just run nine miles away and turn around and be stuck… So I decided to break this run into two runs.  Initially I was planning to do two nine mile runs but decided it would be easier to do a 10 mile and 8 mile run because then I could just turn around when my Garmin beeped instead of tracking the .5 by looking at my watch obsessively… With this game plan, I got dressed and ready to head out.

Oh look, NO SNOW!!!!!

I was also very excited to see this when I woke up this morning.  That’s right, folks.  No snowstorm last night!  What a difference a week makes!

Temps were in the mid 30′s when I woke up and were expected to climb to the mid 40′s by the time I was planning to be done.  I decided on capri’s with tall socks, a long sleeve shirt and short sleeve shirt, light gloves and no head band.  This ended up being perfect for the first portion of my run but got hot near the end…

For some reason, my “first” run today really dragged on and on… Maybe it was because that route I took was hillier or something, I don’t know but I felt like I’d been running FOREVER to look down and see 6 miles :S  Erp… 1/3 done… yuck.  Things got a little better after I took my chocolate clif shot at mile 5 and also ran past one of those police signs that tells you your speed.  I looked up to see “Have a Nice Day…7…Have a Nice Day…7″.  How polite, right?  And so nice of them to tell me to have a nice day!  Hopefully I won’t get a ticket for my 7mph.  (PS, I am pretty sure this was rounding up… I was NOT running 7mph)

<Insert miles 7-10 dragging by rather slowly…>

I stopped back home QUICKLY after 10 miles to switch out water bottles and grab another Clif shot.  I also ditched the gloves and fixed my windblown mess of a ponytail.  I freaked out a poor little puppy dog who was so excited to see me and then sad to see me leave again like 3 minutes later.  Sorry Bud!

Oops... guess Sister now knows I borrowed her bottle. I'll wash it, pleaseforgiveme!

Refueled! And off to tackle my “second” run this morning!  For some reason, my mind was totally fooled by this tactic and miles 10-16 were surprisingly fast and relatively easy compared to the first 10.  I was seriously flying at this point and kept looking at the Garmin to see 8:45s and making myself slow down.  In hindsight, I should have tried harder  I also ditched my water bottle for about .2 miles to stretch out my tired, tired arms.  I also planned to not stop and just swooop this back up and keep right on going… well, my hands did not respond accordingly and some guy witnessed me totally miss the bottle and tip it over, quickly turn around and try again… oops.  I saw him snicker a little but seriously dude, I’m 14 miles in and tired, k?  This arm break was VERY welcomed though!  I took my third Clif shot at mile 15 and this is where it got rough…

I though the shot would help me but I think I was just too tired for it to make as big of a difference as it did earlier.  I was approaching my PDR and fading fast… I made myself keep running until mile 16 but then stopped to walk.  My legs seriously felt exhausted.  I have never gotten to this level of complete fatigue in my legs before and I am sure it was because I was going too fast for me from miles 10-16.  After walking about .2 miles, I painfully started for home.

Well, low and behold, genius that I am, I left the last 2 miles as the only miles on my run that were straight into 20-30mph wind gusts.  Excellent.  Two miles have never been so hard and passed so slowly in my life.  I also don’t think I’ve ever prayed quite as hard to just keep moving, just keep moving. 1,2…1,2… Anyone within earshot thought I was wack-o I am sure because I kept looking at my watch and groaning to see I was SO close but still just not quite there!  17.2 – 18 miles were THE LONGEST 7 minutes of my life thus far (hence the title ) – this was when my legs could hardly move and my arms were exhausted and could not really get my water bottle to my mouth very well and the wind WOULD NOT STOP!  It actually got so bad at this point I was feeling like I was being blown backwards… and yet my legs SOMEHOW kept moving at a 9:30 pace.  (I think it was the prayers )  I turned a wrong corner at 17.75 to have another person look at me funny when I groaned out loud after realizing these are not the houses that lead to home… oops again!  And then finally I watched my Garmin tick from 17.99 to 18.0!!!!!  I did it!  I ran 18 freaking miles!  And took one walking break and one stop home.  I never in a million years thought I would get to this point after hurting my back over a month ago!  And yet, here I am, with a new PDR (and really tired legs)!

I know this is the world’s longest post already but I can’t not include this little tidbit… I always stretch in the driveway when I get home before going in the house and after being in a super awkward hip flexor stretch, looked up to see two ladies getting out of their car to come talk to me… oh excellent.  I didn’t want to be mean (for once ) so I politely apologized for that little stretching show and the fact that I smell and listened to their little shpeal about Anger. Haha!  That was definitely the most awkward time I have been visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses!  Sorry ladies, I know I smelled awfulfantastic!

After stretching some more (inside), I fixed up breakfast and am now sitting on my bed and contemplating a) napping before showing, b) napping after showering or c) something about an ice bath…brrrrr.  Despite that, I have an awful craving for ice-cream… might have to go get some for “lunch” in a little bit!  Also, I have to muster enough energy to babysit tonight…. yikes!

Happy Saturday!

Back to the Long Runs.

I have been working back up to longer distance running for the past two weeks.  Slow and steady was my game plan and so far it seems to be working.  Yes, I missed out on logging quite a few of my training miles but since it’s pretty early in training, hopefully it does not negatively impact me come race day.  Not to mention, the only real goal I am going to let myself have for running my first marathon is to FINISH!  Sure, I have “secret” goals in my head that I know I would be capable of in ideal situations but the truth is, I really have no idea how my body will respond to running 26.2 miles at one time… And my longest training run is “only” 20 miles so those last 6.2 on race day could be the hardest 6.2 miles I ever run in my life.  So I need to have NO TIME GOALS!  (going to keep telling myself this for the next 3 months…)  We’ll see how well I really do with this!

So to practice this no time goal mentality, I set out on this morning’s run with no goal pace or finish time.  I just wanted to go out, run 12 miles and finish.  Those were my only requirements.  There was also to be no looking at the garmin except for figuring out when to turn around/how much is left (yeah, nice thought practice makes perfect?)  I did pretty well with the first part of that goal but the whole watch looking thing didn’t really pan out.  It’s just WAY too easy to glance down and see your pace.  Regardless, it didn’t really seem to mess with me and I just took it for what it was and glanced back up.

Before heading out, I sipped some coffee and snacked on a banana, rice cake and peanut butter.  I also drank plenty of water.  My race fuel for the day was one Chocolate Clif Shot and one Mocha Clif Shot (arsenic free!!)

I planned to set out on a 7 mile loop and then a 5 mile loop to give me a chance to stop home if things were not going too well.  I don’t really like doing things like this because it’s mentally challenging but it just seemed like a good initial plan since I have not run double digits in a month or so.  I ended up doing more of an 8 mile loop, with another 2 mile loop here and there so I stuck closer to home at the end but didn’t ever get TOO close!  It ended up working out just fine (minus that I ran past the same creeper cop car about 6 times…)

Overall, I would say this run went really well and was definitely a confidence booster for getting back into training.  I hate to say it because I will probably jinx myself (and Sister will hate me) but this run was not really a struggle at any point.  I hate to type this but yet I know there will be plenty of runs that go horribly and I will need to be able to look back to runs like this that go better than expected to remind myself that no two runs are created equal and just because one goes poorly, does not signify anything about the next.

Weather today was just about perfect February weather as well!  30 degrees and sunshine!!  When does that happen in Wisconsin and in February!  We are being spoiled this winter and I have a bad feeling we are going to pay for it oh about May 20th?  Ha!  I wore running tights, long sleeve shirt, t-shirt, fleece vest and light gloves.  The t-shirt would not have been needed and the gloves were on again, off again…

Splits looked a little something like this:

Finally took the time to figure out screen shot instead of re-typing these all #lazy

I ended up giving myself a goal to finish my last mile under and 9:00 and I made it!  Whoot!

And post run, my breakfast looked a little something like this!!

Oatmeal minus the oats, coconut butter, White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter, apricot jam and a few sprinkles of Love Grown Foods Granola!  (plus maybe a spoonful of cookie dough )  I’ll probably need a snack/lunch in about 20 minutes already because nothing seems to be keeping me full these days… annoying??!?!

Finally, I had a little arch pain in my foot today because I think I pulled a muscle in it the other day when I was getting out of the shower… seriously?!?!  It did not really hurt when I was running as much as it does walking but I am currently icing it and hopefully by Monday’s run it’s gone?!  Also, it never fails to surprise me that my ARMS have the guts to start to feel “tired” when clearly my legs are working a little harder… but not matter what I do, I can’t seem to get my upper body muscle to get as strong as my lower body ones?!?  I’ll have to do some research on this and see what I can find out because I honestly would have been able to make my legs move more this morning but my ARMS couldn’t do it.  What the heck!

Guess 800+ words about one run is probably enough so I’ll stop now – lol!  Happy Saturday, Everyone!

This is Why…

…my alarm gets set for 5:30am so I can HOPE to be ready to leave for my run by 8 am…

Pre-Run pictures must be taken...

Pre-run breakfast must be eaten...

Post-run smoothie must be assembled...

…UnderArmor compression shorts are the best inventions ever.  Old Navy running shorts are great for shorter runs but this morning, Hello Chafing and Riding Up!

…drinking coffee BEFORE going on a run is not the best idea.  I will get 30 seconds from home and realize I REALLY need to pee

…hairspraying (yes, that is a verb) my head/sweat band in place is a good idea. (Trying to hold a water bottle in your mouth while adjusting your hair will just result in the spilling of your sticky water all over yourself and the side walk )

…Clif Shots rock.  Not only do they work awesome!  but they also make a Margarita flavor.  I will be trying to find these today!  Yes they are a bit processed but my stomach accepts them, they do not have gluten and they keep me from bonking – so… order me up a box!

…my 9 mile runs are jinxed.  About 6 miles into my run this morning, it started pouring rain!  Truth be told, I actually kind of like running in the rain but always worry about my iPod going berserk from getting wet… My last three attempts at a nine mile run have not gone very well so I am not at all surprised something random like a rainstorm occurred this morning!  Ummm.. holy crap – 4 weeks weeks and I will be halfing!!

Wetness! And no, that is not sweat... (notice the water droplet coming off the glasses...)

…this 9 mile run ROCKED! I finished in 1:26 minutes (9:35min/mile average) and that included two breaks, one to talk with the Sister as I passed her walking on the trail and another to talk with some random dude on a bike who wanted to know how much longer the running path would go.  I told him to Port Washington (20ish miles) so he was probably good to keep going that way

…you don’t want me making you a recovery smoothie.  This is probably the grossest color to come out of the little beast.  But might I also add, there are zero flecks of spinach in this.  Impressive.  And it tasted 10x better than it looked.

Almond milk, banana, strawberries, pineapple, protein powder, carrots and spinach walk into a Vita-Mix...

…breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day.  And especially THIS breakfast.  French toast oats by Edible Perspective, topped with my new favorite gluten free granola, hemp seeds, cacao nips and almond butter.

I promise that there is oatmeal under all those toppings!

Ok, the neighbors are starting to complain about the smell coming from this girl.  Time for a Shower!  And then I think some furniture shopping for maybe a new couch, some random something from Kohl’s with a $10 card that expires today and maybe a medicine ball from the sporting goods store with a $10 bucks back reward!  Oh yeah, and I need to get the wee little pup some more food and cut his hair finally!  Saturday’s never fail to go too fast!!

Hungry.

Today’s topic of thought on the series I am working  through is Trusting your Body and listening to its cues for food, rest, etc.  I am notorious for being a total dunce when it comes to this.  It happens more often than I can count that I start getting crabby, dizzy, shaky, headachy or some other random symptom and can’t figure out what the heck is wrong until I realize, duh, you’re probably HUNGRY! I feel like I end up eating 90% of the day but have found that the more I trust my body to tell me when it is hungry and actually eat, the happier and stronger I am becoming.  I have not always had the best relationship with food and eating, from restricting myself too much, to overeating on way too many occasions in a short period of time.  I am still struggling to balance my level of exercise with the level of food I consume because I seem to be stuck in a rut where I am either always eating too much or always eating too little…  For some reason, I have really been struggling with this right now and just can’t get it right!  But I think this mainly happens because I try to over think the whole process of being hungry.

I was going to take a picture of my real snack tonight but it was inhaled before I even realized I should photograph it

When I start to feel hungry, my mind kicks in and says, “What?  No you’re not hungry, you just finished lunch like an hour ago” and so I ignore my hunger and then end up paying the price later by getting a stomach ache, heartburn or just feeling off and weird all day.  Another blog I like to read actually discussed this today as well and probably better than I ever could.  But the truth of the matter is, my body knows what it needs to be happy and I should just listen to it, but at the same time, make sure that I am still getting an adequate balance of protein, carbs and fats.  Because I have found that that is my key to staying full for 2-3 hours (which is a long time for me – lol!!).  Over the past few months, I have figured out that I NEED a big glob of nut butter every morning or else I am hungry by 9am and I need lots of protein at lunch or again, the hunger beast comes to visit again by 1:45pm  I know for a fact that I am in a much better place with this today than I was a few months ago, but also know I have a long ways to go to regain the solid footing on this topic that I had at one point, not that long ago…

These jars disappear WAY too fast around here

Now, on to a few other random and less intense happenings of my day  ;)

1. I had the world’s best breakfast ever this morning.  Drool…….

2. You know the work day is going fast when you try, unsuccessfully, for almost 2 hours to leave your office and it just does not happen.

3. Some people really need to learn simple hygiene skills.  Seriously!

4. Body Pump is starting to give me heartburn and I don’t like it!

5. The Ninja Blender might look fancy, but it is no VitaMix.  Hello grass speckled and chewy spinach smoothie. Geross!

6. If you search Google Images for “snack pictures”, the first items that come up are certainly not real food. (Hello, cheetoes, candy, soda and Red bull…)

7. We are having a blood drive at work tomorrow and I helped pass out the reminder cards and “pre donation snacks” and I felt terribly guilty for giving everyone a rice krispie bar thats ingredients list sounded like a chemistry experiment

8. A certain someone still gets very depressed every time a suitcase starts to get packed up

Don't run away little guy!

Time to head to bed, I have to take the Sister to the airport tomorrow am for her first business trip!!  She is so grown up and has a way cooler job than me.  Although she just said she almost forgot to pack certain undergarments?  So I guess she’s not THAT grown up

Anything randomly interesting happen to you today?

Thank You.

It’s day 2 of the series I started yesterday.  I’m still not sure if I will keep posting every day on here but for now it gives me something to get my writing going as I am still new to this whole blogging and journaling thing… Day 2′s theme is to think of three aspects of your body you are thankful for and thank them for what they do for you.  While I don’t advocate talking to oneself, since I am technically just typing, that does not count, right??

Thank you:

• to my Bones for never breaking!  I can happily say, despite all the falls I have taken and the other random things I have done as I am quite clumsy (Read: take a complete hip first dive on the sidewalk while trying to get to Body Pump…), I have yet to seriously hurt myself (knock on wood)

• to my Eyes for allowing me to see where I am going and also be able to look back to where I have been.  Another passion of mine is photography and without my eyes, this would not be possible.  I don’t necessarily love that I need glasses or contacts on to see these things but you know, I’ll take what I can get!

• to my Legs for carrying me through each and every day and for allowing me to run!  I often tend to find fault in my legs for some reason or another, but the truth is, I want to keep them!  They might be big and they might not always look so great in shorts or a skirt but they are STRONG!  And they can squat, lunge and run with the best of them!

It actually was surprisingly easy to find three things about myself I am thankful for!  And these legs also allowed me to attempt to clean up the backyard today, that I wish my eyes did not have to witness!  The yard is embarrassingly over grown and soooo weedy!  When I bought my house two years ago, it was really disgusting and it is only slightly better now after the many days we have spent weeding and trying to reclaim the yard over the past two years  So even though today is a cross training/rest day in my training plan, I think between yard work, and a Tae-Bo DVD that my sister and I did earlier this morning and maybe a yoga session and barefoot block walk with the pup later this afternoon, I will be exhausted by the end of this weekend!  But I already know this week is going to be much better than last week because I am not gonna let it go any other way!  (Although the Sister is leaving me for her first business trip so it might get a little lonely around here, later this week )

Here’s to wishing every day was a weekend!

Confidence.

My (semi-modified/squashedintofitafter my Summerfest Half Marathon) training plan for my upcoming half marathon had me scheduled to run 7 miles this morning.  I had slept well, the sun was shining and the temps were finally not in the Unbearable Range.  Everything was cooperating perfectly… except my stomach!  I have been super stressed lately and my stomach seems to be bearing the brunt of the symptoms – weak!  But anyways, relaxing for a bit in the morning after I had a little pre-run breakfast (bread, PB2 and banana) and some water gave me time to find a new to me blog and a not new on that blog but new to me 30 day series that I am hopeful will help me reduce my (self-imposed) stress and be a little kinder to myself   The post for the first day of the challenge is Confidence.  Now, I wish just being confident my stomach would not start making flips while I am running would be enough to really not make it do so!!  But oh well… I set out for my run a little later than normal for me, 9:00am, and took the 70+ minutes of my 7ish mile run to reflect on what I can be confident in.

My running fuel of late, 1Tish of agave and my homemade sports drink.

I came up with the following list of items that were heavily influenced by the song that happened to come on my iPod at the start of each mile:

• Beauty will Rise.  I am confident in the fact that regardless of how bad I might feel about something or how dim the outlook is, in the end the Beauty will Rise and I will realize that there was a reason for the bad and that the “bad” eventually is replaced by something good.
• I am confident that God loves me.  Not much to add to this one but I know it’s true and therefore, I know it’s gonna be OK.
• I am confident that I am strong.  A few years ago, it took everything I had to do a few pushups on my knees and run a mile or so.  Today, I can do 30+ pushups ON MY TOES, and run a half marathon.  That’s saying something!
• I am confident that anything longer than 3-4 miles will never be an “easy” run and I should stop telling myself it will be
• I am confident that I am the one who holds the power to make changes in my life.  I have lived the majority of my life very passively.  Things have always just randomly landed in my lap.  But recently I have felt very trapped and confined by these circumstances and I now know that I am the one who is going to need to make changes happen.  Not sure what these will be yet but eventually I will!
• I am confident that I do not run because I am good at it, I run because I WANT to!  I will never be the one breaking records or winning awards at races, but that is OK.  I am confident I will keep running though because for some reason, I really like it
• I am confident that my body sometimes knows better than me what I need and I should therefore listen to it!  It was really hot this morning on my run and my stomach was still being a little sassy so I had to take it easy and take LOTS of walking breaks but I did and you know what, I still finished my distance for the day and feel fine now!  Something that would not have happened if I would have just tried to muscle through and run too fast for the situation.

Two other random confidences I decided on today are : 1) it is not OK to tuck your water bottle in your pants – gross!!! and 2) I will always have a minor heart attack when a dog comes running up to me without a leash on (I was attacked by a dog while running back in 2008)!

My run today really did not go that spectacularly.  Waiting until a little later in the morning gave the sun lots of time to heat up the pavement on the trail I decided to run on and there is no shade on it!  I used to run on this trail a lot last spring and now remember why I bailed on using that course during the hot summer runs!  OOOO eee!!  Next week I will stick to my shady neighborhood route!  I also just felt a little nauseous the whole time so I really did not feel like trying to break any land speed records today.  I also had to cut the run short at about 6.5 miles to stop home but then finished up the last .5 miles barefoot.  I really do love running without my shoes on, especially after how hot and sweaty they got this am!  In all, I finished in about 75 minutes or so.  Approx 10:20 pace for when I was moving.

Once I got back, I sucked down a protein enhanced smoothie and did some ab exercises and this Carrots and Weight workout that I have been using the last three weeks or so – man, now my arms AND legs are shot for the day!!  Time to go tackle the lawn that has gotten a little too “wild” looking and maybe make a trip to my Mecca, Whole Foods, later!  Happy Saturday!

Random backyard shot…