I Quit

1 Apr

Today, I officially quit running. I’ve made this decision based on several reasons. For the sake of full disclosure, I will list these reasons below.

  • I want to sleep in. I no longer want to go to bed before my mom does and wake up before my little sister goes to bed.
  • I want to take my coffee with disheveled hair and in my PJs. I want to roll out of bed, brush my teeth, shuffle slowly down the hallway and find the coffee brewing. I want to drink said coffee on the couch, on my front porch or in the Florida room…
  • I no longer want to be awoken from my wondrous slumber with the numerous alarms required to get me to my early morning runs on time, I do not want to tear my kitchen apart looking for my water bottle and wish to forget about having to charge my borrowed Garmin forever.
  • I want to spend my money on real clothes that I can wear to work and social engagements. I no longer wish to continue to spend said money on replacing sports bras that lose their elasticity, the pursuit of the perfect running tights or new replacement running shoes.
  • I wish to no longer spend more time with the foam roller than I do visiting with my little sister.
  • I want to be able to join in Friday night Happy Hour excursions.
  • I want to be able to stay up past 9 PM Saturday nights.
  • I miss waking up and having zero aches in my body. Currently I lay in bed without moving, playing my favorite game “I wonder what’s going to hurt when I stand up.” (No one is ever the winner in this game.)
  • I want to be able to eat dinner without wondering just how it will (ahem) affect me in the AM.
  • I’m tired of stepping over my sleeping dogs in the wee hours of the morning and having them shoot me a dirty look because I had the gall to wake them up.

In my opinion, these very valid reasons strongly outweigh the benefits of good health and stress release. I retire my running shoes today.

However, on Tuesday I will come out of retirement and rejoin my group for a nice 6-mile run.

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You Really Need to Work on Your Cardio

28 Mar

“Wow, Babe, you really need to work on your cardio.”

This is what Donnie said to me after our hike this past weekend when I admitted to him that I was seriously out of breath while hiking up the mountain that lies in my best friend’s back yard. The mischievous smile on his face told me he was kidding, and I couldn’t help but laugh (after I rolled my eyes, of course).

Here I am, training for my second marathon this year, and I could hardly tell my best friend a story without stopping to huff ‘n puff. Meanwhile my best friend, who just had a beautiful baby last month, didn’t seem out of breath at all. At one point she reassured me that it gets easier with practice, but I’m not sure where I’m supposed to find mountains to hike down here in Florida. Well, besides Clermont.

My best friend and her husband live in Sylva, a small town located in Western North Carolina. A small creek runs by their house and their back yard is the foot of a mountain. Their “yard” is picturesque, and made the perfect setting for our hike.

I don’t know how long or how far we hiked. Great company and the beauty of nature were quite distracting and I got lost in the moment. Growing up I spent every day with my best friend (no, I’m not exaggerating) and now I’m lucky if I get to see her once a year. Getting to spend time with her is a rare treat so I’d say this has been hands down my favorite workout all year. Even if it did take me longer to spit out a sentence.

I wish I could’ve bottled up the hike to share with you, but all I got were pictures. Enjoy!

Fellow hikers (and my favorite people in the world) Donnie, Brad and Jenny

Donnie and Brad lead the way. Brad is carrying his baby girl.

We smile because we hike. Brad, me and Jenny.

The world would be a better place if we all had waterfalls in our backyard.

The creek that runs by their house.

Freshwater puppy

Donnie rocks his burly mountain beard.

Our trip was much too short, but I look forward to the day we hike together again!

What’s been your favorite workout this year?

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My ‘Welcome Back to Normal Life’ Run

27 Mar

Since almost two weeks ago, my life has been total chaos, in the most amazing kind of way. The week leading up to my birthday, I was super busy, but still able to fit in my training runs.

I thought the week after my birthday would ease up, but I ended up being just as busy (or perhaps busier), and by this time too exhausted to keep up my running. Around Wednesday I decided that rather than stress about it, I was going to take the time off and enjoy it. Once I made that decision, it took so much weight off my shoulders!

After an amazing weekend road trip to North Carolina to visit my best friend and her husband and their beautiful new baby girl (which I will write about later), I had a little trouble getting out of bed this morning. But my body was craving a run so I dragged myself out of bed, threw on some running clothes and was out the door by 4:45 AM.

This morning was a short run, full of great conversation and lots of laughter. We spent a good portion of our run  discussing a book that a friend recommended I read: Bringing Up Bebe. Before you jump to crazy conclusions, NO… I AM NOT EXPECTING and neither is the friend who recommended it. It’s a fascinating look at the differences in American and French culture and definitely worth picking up.

Afterwards we continued our laughter over Starbucks coffee and our chicken sausage breakfast wraps (which are delish by the way). As I drove away this morning smiling, I realized how much I’ve missed the ladies the last couple of weeks.

Here are this mornings stats:

  • Distance: 4.12 miles
  • Time: 49:21.03
  • Avg Pace: 11:58/mile

Are you reading any good books? Let me know. I’ll be ready for a new one soon! 🙂

Here’s a pic of the double rainbow we caught on our drive to North Carolina. This was in North Georgia, near the North Carolina border. I saw this and squealed and yelled “WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHAT DOES IT MEEEAAANNN??”

If you don’t know what YouTube video I’m referencing, then you must watch this video now.

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I Ran 18 Miles and Didn’t Want to Die!

20 Mar

Yes, it’s true. Almost every time I’ve set out to run anything over 16 miles, the run usually ends with me feeling like I’m going to die. Or at least feel like I’m going to pass out in the middle of the street.

Except for this past Saturday. This time, the stars were aligned and everything felt okay. Well except for the horrible blister I got on my right foot from wearing a cute pair of flats earlier in the week, but that’s not running related. And I may never, ever wear those shoes again. 🙂

We were starting our run at 4:30 AM, so I woke up at 3:15 AM and did some foam rolling and ate my favorite pre-long run breakfast: a toasted wheat bagel with peanut butter and banana slices. It was nice waking up with so much time, so I wasn’t rushing around the house like a mad woman. Well, except for the part when I remembered I needed to find some green earrings so I didn’t get pinched during our St Patty’s Day long run.

I met part of our group at 4:30 and off we went for a 10-mile jaunt. We would circle back around and pick up the rest of the group for the final 8 miles. This time I remembered to start my run with my IT band. And my borrowed Garmin.

This was the first long run where we had so many runners joining on the back half. I loved it. They were fresh and still had pep in their step, which kept me motivated. If you’re running with someone and they are only running a portion of your distance, I suggest you try meeting them for the back half of your run!

Along the back half, we came across some poor little kids and a dog that had been turned into statues by an evil witch. I had to stop and take a photo with them!

My group leader insists that these are merely replicas of the house owner’s niece and nephew, but I don’t know if I believe that. Poor kids.

Oh, and only in Florida (and some parts of Georgia) do you find energy sources decked out in camo:

Ha!

However, when my wonderful, but slightly evil group leaders tossed in some slight inclines (or “hills” as I say) in the last 3 miles of the run, I may or may not have started to say expletives. I’m sure that they would point out that the Flying Pig Marathon has hills and they were only doing me a favor by exposing me to them in our training run to which I’m sure I would respond with an eye roll too and  a “Pfshh.” Nevertheless I do appreciate it now that it’s over and done with.

We restarted our watches after the first part of the run, so my stats are broken into parts. We are not the kind of runners that stop our watches each time one of us has to use the restroom, or wait to cross an intersection, so our paces are slightly faster then what’s reflected below. And by ‘slightly’ I mean hardly at all. 😉

Part 1

  • Distance: 10.33 miles
  • Time: 02:22:47
  • Avg Pace: 13:49/mile

Part 2

  • Distance: 8.38 miles
  • Time: 01:57:50
  • Avg Pace: 14:03/mile

TOTAL DISTANCE: 18.71 miles <– Wait! I was tricked into running more than 18?

After our run we celebrated with breakfast at Panera Bread. Rachelle brought this little piece of motivation to remind us what we’re working for:

Me posing with our Flying Pig Marathon motivation

Only one more long training run scheduled before race day!

Do you keep any items in plain view to motivate you? Generally I usually just hang my training schedule, but I think I want to find a little pig to put on my desk.

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Getting Old and Being Busy (Not Necessarily in that Order)

19 Mar

“As you get older three things happen. The first is your memory goes, and I can’t remember the other two…” – Sir Norman Wisdom

My delish birthday brownie made by two lovely Kennedy's

The past eight days have been busy. Crazy busy. I remember most of it, except for Monday:

Sunday, March 11: Sleep through my run and enjoy coffee and rain instead. Birthday brunch at Dexter’s for my loveliest lady friend. Volunteer serving dinner at a local center. Eat dinner while watching Magic game with friends at Wildside in Thornton Park. Sleep like a baby.

Monday, March 12: Work. I have no clue what else I did Monday. It scares me that I can’t remember this day at all. While this is likely just due to the ridiculously busy, but amazing, weekend I had, it still makes me nervous. Crap, this is the first sign of getting old.

Tuesday, March 13: Run 4 miles in the AM. Work. Yoga at night. Sleep like a baby.

Wednesday, March 14: Wake up and run 5 miles in the AM. Work. Get my hair did at Alchemy. (See my pretty hair on their Facebook page here. I love it! And look how tired I look. Photo proof.) Sleep like a baby.

Thursday, March 15: Work. Go to my little sister’s house for some much needed sister time. Drink wine. Sleep like a baby.

Friday, March 16: Work. Have one drink with friends for Happy Hour. Eat my favorite pre-long run meal: Black Bean Deli chicken entree with plantains and salad and rice and black beans while watching Grey’s Anatomy. Get in bed by 10:30 PM. Sleep like a baby.

Saturday, March 17: Wake up at 3:15 and tear apart my jewelry box looking for green earrings to wear so I don’t get pinched during our run. This is particularly important since I’m the one that warned everyone via email days earlier. Start 18-mile run at 4:30 AM. Finish 18-mile run sometime before 10 AM. Eat breakfast. Ice bath. Curse (a lot). Defrost. Shower. Walk an additional mile or 2 at Winter Park Art Festival. Go to Scruffy Murphy’s in College Park, drink 2 Guinness draughts, jam out to country band (apparently that’s how we do in Orlando), eat corn beef and cabbage and shepard’s pie and fall asleep by 7:30 PM. Sleep like a baby (and for over 12 hours).

Yesterday, March 18: Wake up one year older. Instantly my body feels older, but quite possible that’s 18+ miles speaking. Pack up and head to Cocoa for the most beautiful beach day ever. Spend six hours on the beach. Fishlips for dinner. Come home and eat the delish surprise tiramisu Donnie somehow managed to hide from me. Shower. Sleep. Like. A. Burnt. Baby.

Today, March 19: Wake up. Hit snooze. Fall back asleep. Wake up. Hit snooze. Fall back asleep. Wake up. Hit snooze. Fall back asleep. Eventually wake up for real. Work. Farm Market. Blog for the first time in a week.

I can’t find my borrowed Garmin anywhere, but as soon as I do, I’ll post about the 18-miler. And yes, it worries me that I can’t remember where I placed it.

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I Was Bad This Weekend

12 Mar

This past Saturday I missed my long training run (10 miles). I simply woke up, felt that my back was achy, and decided that this was a good enough reason to go back to sleep and do what most normal people do on Saturday mornings: sleep in, roll out of bed and drink coffee in my PJs with disheveled hair.

So I did just that. I slept. And when I finally did wake up, I didn’t jump out of bed with the startle of one of my many alarms. Instead, I took my time with arising from my slumber. No alarm, just the aroma of coffee to awake me.

Unfortunately, I did not send the obligatory “I’m not gonna show” up text that I should’ve sent my group. For that, I feel badly. I wish I was the lying type. I would tell them later that not only was my back cramped, but so were my poor fingers and I couldn’t type out a text. Or perhaps I would play the “Oh, you didn’t get my text?” card…

Training-wise I did feel a little guilty for skipping my run at first. I even made plans to run an “atonement run” (my group leader’s name for a make-up run) on Sunday morning. However, when I woke up Sunday morning and saw I had the obligatory “I’m not gonna show” text from a running partner and it was raining… well, heck, I thought “this is my lucky day.”

So instead of a make-up run, I laid in bed listening to the rain as it fell for what seemed like forever. And then afterwards I got out of bed and drank coffee in my PJs with disheveled hair for the second day in a row.

So, to all you crazy runners that dragged yourselves out of bed in the wee hours of a Saturday morning to run before you started your weekend, I salute you.

As for me, I enjoyed my weekend of being bad.

Do you run weekend mornings? If so, what do you miss most about sleeping in?

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Shorty

9 Mar

I stand about 5’3″, weight 155 pounds and have really great birthing hips. I overpronate and it takes me almost two steps to Donnie’s one to keep up with him. I, by no means, have a traditional runner’s body, I will never win a race (unless it’s against a crawling baby) and I make all running outfit decisions based on whether my thighs will rub together.

Everything about my body tells me to go find another form of exercise, but I don’t want to. I want to run.

And at least I have a tall man in my house to reach the highest shelves.

Thanks Runner’s World for the chuckle:

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Double Up Tuesday

7 Mar

Yesterday I did something I don’t normally do: I worked out twice in one day. Like at separate times. On purpose. Whoa!

You see, this might be a regular occurrence for others. But I have this mop of hair on my head that takes a long time to dry, so I pretty much hate having to do it more than once a day.

Because of my busy week, I could only go to yoga last night. But I also had a marathon training run scheduled for yesterday morning. And I didn’t want to cancel either of these. So I went to both.

I met my running ladies at 5 AM for an easy 5 miles. By ‘easy’ I mean we took it an easy pace, not that it was an easy run. I think my legs were still heavy from this past weekend 14-miler. Plus, I was tired so I spent the bulk of our run thinking about coffee… about its aroma, how delicious it would taste after our run, what size coffee I would order at Starbucks, etc.

Afterwards I went to work and… well worked.

After work, I went home and let my dogs out, ate a snack (pita chips and hummus… yum!) and threw on some spandex (really just my running clothes) and off to yoga I went. This was my second class ever and I am happy to confirm that I still liked it. I met up with Carolina from Peas in a Blog (who had just come from a run) and my BFF Rox and this time we took a yoga basics class. Our instructor, Debbie, at Full Circle Yoga was pretty awesome. You know when someone exudes peace? Yup, that was Debbie. Tranquility just flows out of her pores.

I think that the reason I like yoga so much is how I feel afterwards. After a run, I’m on that runner’s high, which is nice and I can very much use it to get through the day. But I hate having that runner’s high at night… when I’m supposed to be getting ready for bed. After yoga, on the other hand, my body is completely relaxed. From head to toe.

I slept like a baby last night. 🙂

Do you ever double up your workouts in one day? If not, what keeps you from doing it?

Hands down my hair keeps me from doing it. But I’m thinking I just need to twist my hair up in a bun in between and suck it up. I woke up feeling amazing this morning!

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My Food Obsession: Strawberries

6 Mar

Strawberries… Mmmmmmm…

I’m a big fan of strawberries and purchase these year round, but I certainly tend to increase my intake when they are in peak season. With my local grocery store having strawberries on sale, I’ve been buying strawberries in bulk.  This means I have to find ways to consume them before they go bad.

Lucky for me, only a few strawberries have been wasted this season. Here are my favorite ways to consume them:

Smoothie

Being a runner in the almost-always hot and humid Orlando, there’s nothing more that I enjoy post-run than a cold, delicious smoothie… and a cold shower. In fact, I’m in enjoying one right now! A smoothie that is (I’ve already taken my post-run shower).

Here’s what’s in today’s smoothie:

  • fresh strawberries
  • half a banana
  • blueberries
  • vanilla yogurt
  • honey
  • vanilla soy milk
  • oatmeal

I have heard that adding spinach or kale to smoothies are great added sources of calcium and vitamin C, and I’m toying with the idea. I’ve been told you can’t taste this odd addition, especially in any smoothie that includes bananas. However,  I think I’m having the hardest time saying goodbye to my pretty pink smoothie and welcoming a green smoothie.

Salad

One of my favorite salads is super easy to make:

  • spinach or spring mix salad
  • goat cheese
  • sliced fresh strawberries
  • sliced almonds
  • grilled chicken breast (or if you’re in a hurry, buy a rotisserie chicken from the store and add pieces of chicken to your salad)
  • raspberry vinaigrette

For Donnie’s salad he skipped the cheese so I added garbanzo beans instead.

Fruit Salad

Sunday we made our all-time favorite fruit salad, including mango, strawberries, kiwi and blueberries. Mmm…

Yogurt Parfait

Donkey: Have you ever met a person, you say, “Let’s get some parfait,” they say, “Hell no, I don’t like no parfait”? Parfaits are delicious! — Shrek

Just layer granola, yogurt, strawberries (and other berries) and go! Best paired with half of a Whole Foods bran muffin. 🙂

Pancakes

Topping my pancakes with whipped cream and fresh strawberries might be one of my favorite ways to consume strawberries, but definitely the least enjoyed. This is a rare, but delicious treat for me. Hmmm… my birthday is coming up…

Party Snack

I recently went to a bridal shower where one of the hostesses served finger sandwiches made with Nutella and strawberry slices. For a week after I was eating wheat bagels with Nutella and strawberries for breakfast. Raise your pinky while eating and I promise you’ll feel like such a lady while eating them.

And of course, you can always just wash a strawberry and pop it in your mouth. Mmmm…

How do you eat your strawberries?

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Fail Run

4 Mar

Yesterday’s long run was scheduled to be 18 miles.

In the end it was 14 or so miles.

I can’t confirm the exact distance or time because my run started with realizing that I hadn’t charged my borrowed Garmin. My run ended with an irritated IT band because I forgot to wear my IT strap. Quite frankly, it would’ve ended sooner, but I forgot my iPhone.

There’s a lot of forgetting when you wake up late and don’t allow yourself enough time to properly think in the morning. I need to start going to bed earlier.

Afterwards, Donnie and I went to the beach where I soaked my left leg in ice cold water. Hands down, that was my favorite “ice bath” to date.

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