Another weekend, come and gone.

It was definitely a “for me” kind of weekend, I got a hair cut, indulged in some retail therapy, took advantage of a networking opportunity (super outside my comfort zone) and here’s what else.

As for my Marathon Monday updates, I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things (which is scary to me, because I don’t have much time to do things slowly if I want to run this Marathon).  I’m going to train for it to the best of my ability, but be smart about it too, if I’m physically not ready to run the race, I have to be mentally ready to admit that.  It doesn’t mean I’ll give up on the goal, its been made public as a point on my bucket list.  But for now, I’ll do my best to continue training.

Workouts:  For the past week, I’ve been battling what I think is a mild case of Bells Palsy.  Its a scary phrase to say partial paralysis of the face.  I woke up Monday morning last week and suddenly only half of my smile worked and I couldn’t close my eye fully.  This results in a sore jaw (if I try to talk a lot), sloppy eating (corn on the cob becomes dinner and a show for B) and a dry eye from time to time.  Add to all of this a frustrating inability to fall asleep and then STAY asleep, last week was rough, on both the psyche and the workout plan.  The good news is that first and foremost, it will get better and it IS getting better.  I still feel like a jerk that I can’t smile when I go out in public and its also kind of embarrassing, and even though I can close my eye, I can’t do it fully yet. So its really just a waiting game.  My friend said “when someone up there decides its time for you to slow down for a bit, they make sure you do”.  And that’s really what i’m taking this experience as.  Trying to rest a little more than usual and let my body heal.  BUT, that’s not to say I haven’t tried to stay healthy.  Although I haven’t made it to the gym for my body pump or yoga sessions (hoping to change that this week!), I lifted at home and did some yoga at home each day.  I also made it to the gym for some cardio, since running outside isn’t too smart, given my eye (the breeze dries it out and if something gets in my eye, I can’t blink it out).  I got in a good elliptical and treadmill workout.  Despite not being my favorite piece of equipment for distance runs, the treadmill does help with speed intervals .

Food:  I made a conscious effort this week to try and sneak in veggies for lunch and dinner and to snack on fresh fruit when I do snack.  I’ve also been drinking a lot of water lately and am glad to be back on my water weekdays kick.  Even though I’ve been skipping out on the salads these days, I’m still getting a ton of veggies in through simple veggie sautes for lunch and sneaking them in at dinner.

 

And that’s about it!  How was your weekend??

xo

 

ps – for those of you keeping track of my Katie Learns to Cook series, I know I skipped yesterday, even though I had the chapter fully read (bad me!).   With the mindset of the weekend, it just felt better not having that as something I had to do.  I’ll have it up this week though and fully plan on staying on track as we continue!

Hello Monday, we meet again…

This little girl is s.i.c.k. 😦 Or something like it.  I’ve been nursing a sore left neck/face for the past few days and its getting a little better, we’ve moved on from super sore to a little numb?  Weird.   In all honesty, I think i’d prefer the full on sore to the numb.  Lots of rest today!

 

This weekend we FINALLY worked our way back to Lancaster to pick up the two little four legged creatures.

 

 

Clearly they are thrilled to see us.

We also got to say hi to this sweet little thing, who has recently adopted Brandon’s parents.

Ladylike: youz doin it wrong.

 

And of course no weekend at home is complete without the requisite “mom you cooked too much” dinner.

Fruit, baked beans, asparagus, corn on the cob, veggie salads and a Field Roast sausage for me, yum! The best part about these dinners are that we somehow seem to acquire the leftovers!? 😀  Darn…

As for my Marathon Monday update…

I have been  L.A.Z.Y.  Does that count as a legitimate training week??   To be fair, vacation was last week and there was a LOT of walking and two bike rides, one 15 miler and a 25 miler.  So that counts for SOME cross training, but as far as miles logged on the road or treadmill – yikes.    Its probably been a good 1.5-2 weeks since i’ve pounded the pavement and there’s no excuse other than I just didn’t.  It was way too hot to safely and effectively run outside.  When you’re breaking 90 by the early AM, its not the time to run.  Luckily its supposed to cool off this week, so I’m ready to get back into it.

I was supposed to go to Body Pump this morning, but with the issues I’ve been having lately with the muscle fatigue, lack of sleep and soreness, I opted to try and get a little more rest – because I didn’t want to hinder, rather than help recovery.  I did feel guilty enough to fit in a small lifting workout this morning at home instead though.  Doing 3×10 sets with heavier weights for squats, tricep and bicep work and some shoulder work. I finished off with some dead lifts and  I threw in a few plank sets too for good measure.   It wasn’t a complete body workout like I love to get with Pump, but sometimes its nice to get some heavier lifting in too.  Plus, despite not making it to class, i still managed to get in a fairly decent lifting workout for the day.  Now…who wants to motivate me to start running?? 🙂

xo

 

ps – Hail storm in the middle of a heat wave?  Ca-ray-zy.  

BBB

 

Beers

Bangs

and Bikes

 

What did you do this weekend??

 

xo

Race Recap!

13.1 miles?  No sweat 😉

No.  Seriously, there was very little sweating this weekend.  It. Was. COLD.  The sun didn’t peak its head out ONCE on Saturday morning, but the cold misty rain did!    Lets back up.

For those of you following along, this past Saturday was my very first half marathon, at the Garden Spot Village Marathon.  Mentally, I did NOT feel prepared at all.   Physically, I I wasn’t even aware of how my body was feeling.  Was I ready to run?  I had no idea.  I hadn’t slept very well on Thursday night, but Friday night was a little better.

I did my best to make sure I was ready to go first thing Saturday morning (packet pick up started at 6:30).  You know the drill, set up the hydration belt (more on that in a bit), ipod and (BROKEN) headphones put out, lay out the running outfit…lets see “sneaks, socks, underarmour cold weather gear, a jacket to throw on top annnd a sports bra….”  Nope.  NO SPORTS BRA.  For serious?  I can remember to grab 3 hair ties, but I can’t remember a sports bra for a half marathon race weekend.  Sigh.  However!  Runners are nothing, if not resourceful 😉

Luckily I had brought along some warmer weather running gear, just for wishful thinking.  My tanktop had a built in shelf bra (girls, you know the type) and its a pretty snug fit.  So I threw that on UNDER my coldweather running shirt.  Worked like a charm! Crisis. Averted.  (For the record, I found the sports bra.  IN my bag.  While unpacking)

Fast forward to eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarly Saturday morning.  Wasn’t quite sure what time it was  – but what I WAS sure of, was the absolute downpour going on outside.  At this point, I was convinced it was 5:30 in the morning and I was going to have to head out the door and run this race soaking wet.  Luckily, it was only 3.  2.5 more hours of sleep and hopefully no rain. Check.

By the time we got to packet pick up, I had realized the following:

1.  I do NOT like to eat before working out if its early in the morning.

2.  The sun was NOT coming out, but the drizzle was probably there to stay.

3.  It. was. cold.

4.  I was going to have to run this 13.1 miles whether I was ready or not.

 

We counted down the final 10 seconds, I plugged in my audio book and it was ready, set, go.

For the first mile or so, my legs got used to running and at the first mile marker I was pretty surprised to see I was cruising at a pace faster than my normal outdoor runs.  I took the philosophy of focusing on a runner ahead of me and make it my goal to pass that runner andmove on.

Miles ticked away and I kept moving forward.  I kept saying “if you want to stop next pit stop, go ahead”.  Each pit stop passed by.  At this point, I’ll just say that the hydration belt?  Genius.  I didn’t have to walk through the water points and I also managed to drink the water while running, instead of splashing it into my mouth and count it as hydration.  Some people may not like the sloshing and I admit, it takes some time to get used to, but I was so grateful for it.

Ok.  So somewhere around mile 5.5-6, i was starting to wonder where the turn around point was.  And do you remember me talking about that hill?  The one that had me gaping at the computer screen?  Well.  I tackled that hill this past weekend.  I believe the exact noise I made when I first SAW the hill, was a very big loud “HA”.  I’m pretty sure I heard some “uhhh” and some “oh. sh**t”.  This hill, my friends, was no joke.  Running along and suddenly the road just DROPS out of sight.  And the worst part?  You have to go down it first, before turning around to come back UP.    Luckily, they had a large and loud cheering squad of volunteers that screamed their HEADS off when someone made it up the hill, running or not.  I am PROUD to say that I ran my butt up that hill, the whole way!  Slapped a few high fives and kept on trucking.  No stopping for this girl!

Suddenly, it was 3.1 miles to go.  A brief smile and wave to the queen at 2.2 miles to go – Fun story behind that, for another night 😉  and before I knew it?  1 mile to go.  One VERY long mile.  I know there’s a wall that runners talk about, and I get that – but that last mile is pretty tough too.  I managed to find enough inside to dig deep and sprint the last half mile or so.

Final time?  2 hours and 10 minutes.  Which SMASHED my “look for me around 2 hrs 30 minutes at the EARLIEST, but really, closer to 3” time that I told Brandon about.  Thank goodness he had to sneak out to the bathroom, because how else would I get to share this lovely shot?

You're welcome

Digging deep ain’t always pretty folks, but it turns out?  Its totally worth it.

totally

 

xo