Dealing

Sorry for the radio silence guys-rough end to the week.

Needless to say, my two taper days didn’t end up being as hard to do as I thought, honestly-working out was the LAST thing on my mind. Maybe that’s a good thing. Only problem, is that even though I’ve been physically not doing anything, my mind’s been a mile a minute. Which has resulted in a pretty lousy night of sleep last night and thoughts completely undevoted to the race tomorrow. Which is why I feel like this shot conveys! Driving up north has been the first time I’ve been able to devote some time to mentally prepping myself for tomorrow. Thankfully I managed to get everything packed in time, but I can’t help but be a little angry that I’ve had to divert my focus from the race. At least its kept me from getting too nervous?
But that’s life, right? S*#t happens that you have to deal with. So I’m putting on my big girl panties and dealing with things as best I can. 🙂 see? Smiles are a start…
Writing out some of that already has helped immensely, so thank you guys, for letting me have that…
Tomorrow will go one of 2 ways. It will be lack luster, or I will be channeling my emotions into each stride. Either way, I’ll see ya’ll at the finish line 🙂

Happy Friday!

Xo

Finding my inner strength

It was such a weird day today, I am pretty sure I ran the FULL GAMUT of emotions.  I like to try and keep a positive spin on things, but its not always easy!  Shall we recap?

This morning I PR’d on my 3 mile time!  I’ve been trying to get my pace down and my next big 5k goal is to break that frustrating 27 minute point.  I’m proud of what I did, but I was also tired this morning, which lead to my being frustrated at the pace (no pun intended) I’m improving at.  You know me.  I want patience and I want it now…  Also.  I’m pretty sure PR’ing while tapering isn’t really the point…oops

I had a mini-anxiety attack this morning, for seemingly no reason, but I think I can tie it to my weekly (sort’ve?) meeting with my boss.  Each week the anticipation is always worse than the actual meeting itself, but its a hard habit to break.  Slowly but surely I am.

Work was pretty disappointing at first.  I’m frustrated, once again at what feels like being stuck and not being able to push back a particularly UN-surmountable hill.  I do research, so this isn’t exactly unheard of.  But all the same, I’m pretty tough on myself and I hate that the impression i’m giving isn’t my best.  HOWEVER.  Last year at this time, no joke, something like this would have sent me into a negative spiral of guzzling down another 4 cups of coffee (yowzas!) and a doughnut, nab some greasy french fries for lunch, hit up some pizza or Chinese food for dinner with a few beers and wallow in self-pity.  Looking back that’s a pretty miserable way to handle it.  But with a few kind words and what appears to be some new found inner strength,  I reached for my water bottle instead of that cup of coffee and it just went from there.  I was cleaning, I was working, I was productive and I was determined to not let this beat me.  I don’t know how I’ll work my way over the hill, but I am damn sure I’m going to figure it out.   I’m so glad I’ve been able to look back and see how far I’ve come and channel that frustration into something more positive and healthy.

So – a hodge podge of things today before I zip off to Yoga class – I think I’m going to need it tonight! I may be on taper, but don’t take away my yoga night!  Ommmmmmmmmm

First off.    Can we just discuss the awesomeness of this shirt?

Look at that smile! Can't keep me down!

A little free advertising 🙂

Seriously.

I love this shirt.  Its A.  Comfy.  B.  Fits great.  C.  Clearly, the message is appealing to me 🙂  D.  Um. Cute?  For serious.   The blog, http://www.nomeatathlete.com is a great resource for Veggie/Vegan athletes, runners, etc.   I would highly recommend clicking over, just in case you haven’t yet!

Secondly:  

That, my friends.  Is what I would call a SUCCESSFUL dinner of Vegan Mac & Cheese.  So, how do I define successful?

1.  Brandon didn’t run away screaming

2.  Brandon tried it willingly and decided someone has come up with a decent substitute for the “real thing”

3.  Brandon went BACK FOR SECONDS

4.  There were NO, none, zilch, zip, nada, ZE.RO. leftovers.

Winner winner fake-chicken dinner!  🙂  Note.  I do realize that by using bowtie pasta, I cannot actually refer to this as Mac and Cheese.  I walk a fine line between visionary and crazy.

Finally:  Has anyone read about this  ?  A transgender finalist in the Miss Universe Contest, Jenna Talackova has been DQ’d, because she was born male, despite identifying as a female since age four.  The Miss Universe website lists this in their History page

“These women are savvy, goal-oriented and aware. The delegates who become part of the Miss Universe Organization display those characteristics in their everyday lives, both as individuals, who compete with hope of advancing their careers, personal and humanitarian goals, and as women who seek to improve the lives of others.”

Does Jenna no longer embody those qualities because she wasn’t born as a woman?  Obviously I don’t think the organization thinks so, the website for the Canadian organization that sends contestants to the Miss Universe pageant appears to be supportive of Jenna’s future endeavors, but not of her participating in the program.   I think its an interesting look at how long established rules may no longer apply to current standards.  But is the answer to change the rules, or to maintain a longstanding tradition?  I have my own thoughts on the matter, but was wondering what anyone else thought?

Discuss, friends!!  Who else is improving these days?  Mentally, emotionally, physically!?

xo

Chew on this. Seriously.

Mmmm nomomnomnom.

Snacks.  Ya’ll know I LOVE them.

Like. Seriously love my snacks.  Granola bars, fruit, veggies and hummus.

Annnd These.

Because these.  Are insane.

I used the recipe from one of my favorite food bloggers – Savory Simple (you can find the original recipe here!).  The only problem was.  I had…none of the ingredients.  Nope.  Not a one.  HOWEVER.  I did have figs and walnuts.  So, using the same idea, I made my own version, with a drizzle of maple syrup.  Ho.Ly. COW.  They were Insane.  SO insane that they were gone within a few days and I had to make more.  This time, with more walnuts and less figs.  The outcome?  A slightly nuttier (duh), but still delicious version.  That was last week.

THIS week, I bought the figs, again.  My oopsie?  I thought I had walnuts, but didn’t 😦  Womp womp.

What I learned from last week though, is that this recipe, is incredibly versatile.  Like – add in Kashi Toasted Berry Crisp instead of walnuts– versatile.  I really liked doing this, because now it adds a smidge more protein to the snacks, but still keeps the crunch! Mmmmmmm.  Wonder what other ways there are to change these up?  Chocolate chips whirred in?  Coconut?  Nuts AND chocolate chips?!  I’m a rebel.

"eat me!"

Snacks.

In other news- taper week has started (GASP!).  And I have officially had my first argument with myself.

   “Do I go? Tapering means to rest, right?  You’re tired, you should rest.  You’re an idiot, get out of bed and run”.   

As per my usual guilt trippy self.  I got out of bed and ran.  And as per the usual “I told you so” effect, yes.  I was glad I went.  I felt good afterwards, although my run probably didn’t embody the idea of “tapering” and I did an interval run hit 4 miles in 36:06.  Decent time and I didn’t feel like I was running at a pace that was unsustainable for a period of time.  I’m not sure I could run a consistent 9:00 pace for the half, but if I threw a good effort, that counts too, right?

But this tapering thing is a bit confusing.  Do I maintain all of my classes and runs, but decrease my intensity? Or do I take a legitimate 2 day rest prior to the race?  Or, do I mix and match and cut out my two classes on Thursday night and Friday morning and fit in an easy 2 miler Thursday morning?  I think the last option is my preferred option…but i’m open to anyone who’s got a good grasp on tapering…what’s the best?

I’ve taken a page out of Dominick‘s book (blog?) and added Daily Mile to my daily “to do list” in order to get a better idea of the mileage I’m tracking.  (see it the button? CLICK it!)

When I start training for new races  (more on this soon!) you can check in to see what kind of mileage i’m doing (cough cough if i’m keeping up with my training cough cough).  I love how Dominick is using it to keep track of a YEARLY mileage goal! I never thought of that. It seems like a great site and I love that users can send motivations to each other.  Its not just for runners either, you can add all sorts of activities and log away! Feel free to follow me!

Happy almost middle of the week!! 🙂

xo

Scenes from the weekend

Oh weekends.

Why do you have to go so fast and be so awesome?

I did pretty well at banging through my weekend “to do” list this weekend.  Yes, I am THAT crazy.  I just feel like if I know what I want to get done and have it listed out, I will have a much  better chance of getting it done!  Some (All Vegan!)  highlights?

      

excuse the messy hair and non-makeup’d face.  This was right after my, oh that’s right, a 10 mile long run!  I’m pretty happy about getting the run in today, even if it mean having to sneak back outside to fit in the last 0.2 miles when I realized I only ran 9.8!  Dedication, folks.  Dedication.  I was so tired this weekend, so getting out was a struggle.  A huge one.  But this is the last big run on my training schedule before tapering and my half marathon next Saturday :-O   holy cow guys.  I am suddenly nervous.  Where has all my training gone?  Have I done enough?  I feel like i’m back at day one, just signing up for my first few races, trying to figure out if I could even huff and puff my way through a mile.    Figuring out this taper thing will be an ongoing challenge, but i’m looking forward to some rest, I think my body could use it.

Has anyone else out there experienced pre-race jitters like that?  Hopefully a week of slowing down, but keeping the same routine will help to shake out the nerves 🙂

How was YOUR weekend!?

xo

Happy Friday!

Nuff said 🙂