I'm a running fool!....or just a fool

Hey guys!  So I’m totally off on my days this week.  Monday was a holiday, and I took yesterday off to go with Billy Madison to register for his fall classes/orientation, so I’m all out of whack.  He’s going back to school this fall for a couple years then it off the dental school!  It’s going to be a long road, but totally worth it in the end.  I’m super proud of him for taking this leap.  He definitely is at a job that could be his career, but that fact that he wants more for himself and us is pretty great.

Ok, enough with the mushy stuff, let’s get to it.  I signed up for my next race.  It’s on June 9^th, the Walker Methodist 5k/10k.  There were some other races that day, but I figured, if I’m going to pay 30 buck to run for 25 min.  I at least want a nice shirt, not some crappy cotton one.  So I found this one and they give you tech shirts and its only 25.00, win win!  Since that race is a little over a week away, I wanted to write up a “training” plan.  I use that term VERY loosely cause I have absolutely no experience in this area – so please, DON’T take my advice, you might end up worse off than you were.  Just a warning that I have no idea what I’m talking about.  Anywhoozle, I’m going to see how this plan goes and if I feel good on race day then I might stick with it.

Thursday (today!): speed work (3 800's @ race pace alt. w/ 3 @ training pace)

Friday: 5 mile training pace

Saturday: strength & core work

Sunday: 3 mile training pace

Monday: speed work

Tuesday: strength & core

Wednesday: long run training pace (5.5-6)

Thursday: 4 mile easy or rest day

Friday: yoga stretch & core

Saturday: Walker Methodist 5k race!

And please, anyone that might actually know a thing or two about running/racing please tell me if this plan looks totally stupid, cause it’s kind of a shot in the dark.

Also, for anyone who may be smarter than me (which is most people), Saturday after my race, I noticed the top of my left foot hurt – kinda like a bruise but I don’t have an actual bruise.  It’s like I tied that shoe to tight.  Anyway, it still hurts when I put my shoes on but I seem to forget about it while I’m running.  Has this happened to anyone, or could I really have bruised it from my shoe being too tight?

Med City 5k & Marathon in pictures

a nice shot of the ol' rear - I look like I'm standing still, I promise I'm actually running

comin' in hot!  can someone tell me whats wrong with my hands?

oh just hangin' with medal #1

me and my mom :)

oh hey, this guy looks familiar :)  with medal #2

 Like my head band??  Stop over to Simple-Trends , say hi to Nicole Brecht and buy one!

before the race - they look happy now...

and they're off like a prom dress!

 Isaac lookin good at mile 3

Mile 3 for ol' J-fly.  Livestong man, Livestrong

ha!  Mile 11 - not sure what hes smiling about!

Mile 21 - feeling the burn

Done and done!

this is the very definition of pain - makes me hurt just looking at it!

Marathon finishers!  #1 for J-bobby and #2 for Isaac

you again!

Med City 5k & Marathon recap in words

Hey guys and happy Tuesday!  It feels like a Monday since it was Memorial Day and our offices were closed yesterday.  So as promised, here is a recap from our weekend of racing.

On Saturday I had my 5k.  Like I mentioned earlier, the race wasn’t until 3pm, So Jake and I dinked around home for a while, took the pup for a walk and made our way down at 12:30 – Rochester is about an hour south, but I wanted to get there early to get my race pack and check out the expo.  Jake was able to pick up his marathon packet too, so it was convenient for both of us.  The expo was pretty small, so it didn’t take us long to walk through it.  I did find some really cute headbands though so I bought a couple, and wore one for the race.

Even though it was gloomy and rainy for the early part of the day, it actually cleared up and was fairly sunny for the race – sprinkled just a little but nothing to major.

So a little before 3 we all lined up, Jake let me borrow his Garmin ( I really need to get my own) so I got that set, and set my Pandora on my Ipod to my Aerosmith station – I LOVE classic rock, and love running to it even more :)  We were off!  I was feeling really good, maybe it was the sweet tunes or my new outfit, but I was shocked when I looked down at the Garmin and saw a 7:45 pace!  I stayed in that general area for about 2 miles, then it slowly went down to around 8:00, but I was totally OK with it.  I was expecting a 8:30/8:40 pace at best, so this was awesome.  The route was good, a lot more hilly that I was expecting, but it kept it interesting.  When I was coming to the finish I saw my time on the clock and tried my best to sprint it in.

Official chip time – 24:56, average pace 8:02.  I have NEVER run a 5k that fast before.  Considering a few days before my “practice” one was a lousy 27:00, this was awesome.  I felt so great.  I looked at the results and thought I might have finished near the top, so I wanted to stick around for awards.  It was a good thing I did cause I ended up getting 3^rd in my division!  I mean, I was just happy to get a medal at the finish, now I have 2 medals :).  I was 38^th overall, and was 9^th out of 160 women.  I would say it was a success, and I’m already looking for my next race so stay tuned!

Sunday was the marathon that J-flow and our buddy Isaac were running.  The weather forecast was for high’s in the 80’s to 90’s (aka. ungodly HOT!)  Let me give you a little back story.  So about 5 weeks ago J injured his Achilles during a training run and had to take a good 2 weeks off running.  He did some cross training, but not a lot, then went to Moab to bike, and when he got back attempted to run a bit, but it wasn’t enough to be fully prepared.  The farthest he ran in the past 5 weeks was about 5 miles (yikes!).  Also, Isaac had tweaked his knee a few weeks ago, so he also hadn’t been putting in super long miles either.  Needless to say, both were a tad under prepared.  They went into it knowing it wouldn’t be their best, but they still wanted to give it a go and see if they could finish.  My friend Carly (Isaac's wifey) and I tried to stop along the way to cheer them on, we saw then at mile 3, 6, 11 – they looked pretty good during those times.  We went to the 21 mile mark and that’s when things got ugly.  We waited and waited and finally saw J come around a corner – I ran down to where he was and ran a little alongside him.  Carly said that he was looking really pale like it might pass out, and she’s a nurse, so she knows what she’s talking about :) I thought he just looked tired, me = not a nurse.  There was a loop they had to take so mile 21 and 24 were at the same spot.  When J came back around he was no longer running, I walked a bit with him before we went on his last 2 miles to the finish – he told me later that he walked his last 2 miles, and had been run/walking since mile 19ish.  Then we were waiting for Isaac to come by 21.  He doesn’t do well in the heat AT ALL.  I swear if he could run a race on North Pole he would probably still be too hot.  Anyway, he was about an hour behind Jake, and it is an understatement to say we were relieved when we saw him come by.  He also told us later, that he walked the last 6 miles.

After we saw Isaac, we drove to the finish.  Both the guys sucked it up and ran the finish chute but it was painful to watch and we were glad when they were done – I’m sure they were too.  It was also pretty inspiring to see everyone come in.  I don’t care how many marathons people do, it is still such a big accomplishment, and for Jake to finish his 1^st marathon, and Isaac his second is just awesome.  Isaac immediately said never again, but I’m pretty sure J-bomb is already planning his next one – hopefully injury free so he can get his goal of 3:50.

Overall it was a fun and tiring weekend.  I might have caught the running bug, but for now I’ll stick with 5k’s.  Not sure if I have the mental strength to take on a full/half mary, but we’ll see…

For someone who doesn’t love running, I sure like it a lot :)  We’ll see where it takes me I guess…



* Edited to add - when I went to get my 3rd place medal, Jeff Galloway was handing them out, I got to shake his hand - pretty cool.  If you don't know who he is, get to know him here .

rain on race day

Hi friends!  Long time so see.  Ok, so you remember a while back when I said I had a 5k at the end of May.......well neither did I until this week, and the race is today!  Ugh, I did a practice run on Monday at what I hope will be my race pace, and it was ugly.  I felt like I was just suckin' air the whole time, couldn't get a good breath.  I'm hoping today goes better. 

The weird thing is, is that this race is at 3:00 in the afternoon, I'm used to running races in the morning, so its hard to stay pumped up and motivated. I have come to the conclusion that I really like this feeling though, of having a race to do, so I already started looking up ones for June - I'm excited :)

The race I'm doing is part of the Med City Marathon Weekend in Rochester, MN.  Since I'm a slacker I'm only doing the 5k and fast-pants McGee is doing the marathon tomorrow with a buddy.

Also, today the weather SUCKS!  The temp is actually pretty good for a race, but its raining.  I don't have a problem running in the rain, I just hate starting when its already raining.  Oh well, all the lucky spectators will be treated to a nice wet-t shirt contest...woof

if you cant tell, its pretty gloomy, thanks a lot mother nature

Since the weather is craptastic, I decided to lift my spirits with some new gear!

 yippee!

These are the Nike Tempo shorts.  I really like these a lot.  I only have one other pair, but they are great.  The sporting good store that I got them from had them on sale for $25.00....might need to get another pair while the sale is still going...

Well kids, wish me luck, should be a fun and sloppy race! I'll be back with a race recap.

Girls on the Run 5k

Workout - Insanity: Pure Cardio 


Top of the mornin' to ya and happy Saturday! I'm up early to get my workout in. This morning I am volunteering to be a running buddy for the Girls on the Run end of season 5k. Girls on the Run is such a great program. It's a wonderful opportunity for young girls/women to learn self confidence, strength and beauty within ourselves. A coworker is a coach and asked if I would be a buddy with a girl who doesn't have one to run with. I said of course! Back in middle school I was a volunteer with the program and jumped at this chance to be a small part of it again. To these girls this 5k is such a big accomplishment and they should all be so proud. This is also open to the public which is pretty awesome too.


 If you are interested in being a coach or volunteer in your area check out the main link here. Its a great way to enrich your life as well as the lives of some great girls.

Now lets hope I don't get my booty kicked by an 8 year old :)

Mail call!

Mmmmm packages...

new clothes and shakeology :)

 Although I wish I was home when the mailman dropped it off - I love a man in uniform :)  J better come home quick if he doesn't want me to run off with the UPS guy!

Now stop reading this darn thing and GO OUTSIDE!

Puppy Love

Workout - Insanity: Cardio Power & Resistance

stick a fork in me....

 I recorded my workout, but decided against posting it.  I will post one when I get in better shape and don't look so tragic.

Happy Thursday everyone.  Today you’re in for a real treat, I know you’ve been on pins and needles to see what’s been goin’ on in my oh-so exciting life, so let me introduce…

STELLA!

on the way home from picking her up!

 

hangin' with Jbob the dog whisperer

gettin her tan on - girls gotta get some sun, its almost beach season!

how can you not love a face like that!

 and finally, the original...

I have to admit, 80% of the reason I chose the name is because of those three videos, plus she TOTALLY looks like a Stella :)  Although, I don’t think I will ever need to yell at her like that….

Deja Vu apology

So here I come (again!) with my tail between my legs.  Sorry guys, I’m such a crappy blogger I’m starting to annoy myself.  So here’s the scoop.  I’m trying to decide how I want this blog to be, and I came to the conclusion that I was being really strict with myself.  Blogging every day, logging every workout, and posting every meal.  That’s great for someone who can actually keep that up, but me, I have far too little motivation, so it was a great idea, but it lead to a big time burnout for me.  I also realized I don’t really like the gym, and fell off the wagon hard, like plummeted down a cliff and landed in a flaming pile of garbage hard.  I have eaten to many pieces of pizza, bags of Swedish fish, and far too little salad, fruit and veggies. 

noted...thanks carrot

To top it off, since Wednesday the 2^nd, my workouts have been basically non-existent.  Now don’t get me wrong, I can still fit in my clothes, they just aren’t as comfortable as they should be.  I have a certain pair of jeans that I use as a gauge to see if I need to lose a few lbs ( I HATE the scale).  They are a size 4 (I wear a 4/6), and have absolutely NO stretch in them.   They fit well when I’m actually being healthy, but as soon as I step off the fitness train, they get tight, and let me tell you, those suckers are tiiiight!  Like lay down-suck it in-zip it up- not breath-tight.  So I’ve got to get it together, or I’m going to go down a road that I don’t want to.  I didn’t work this hard to let it all go.



I have come up with a plan though.  I’m going to try and eat mindfully, and intuitively.  Meaning, I will try and keep up the healthy eats, but If I want  an extra piece of toast I will have it, I will eat when I’m hungry and tell myself it’s OK J.  I am also ditching the gym.  Don’t get me wrong, the LiveFit Trainer is awesome and because it’s a free program it’s not like I’m losing money, but I think it’s something best saved for the winter months – so I will probably pick it up towards that time of year.  I also really enjoy working out at home, call me cray cray but I like it.  I can push myself super hard and not care if I look like a lunatic – which I most likely do.  I decided that I’m going to do another round of Insanity.  Its only 60 days, and I know first-hand that it whips me into shape.  I thought about only doing 30 days of it, but quickly slapped myself in the face and told my lazy self to suck it up and do the full round.  So I am.  Not sure when I’ll start, by Sunday for sure.

I’m still going to post my workouts, just to keep ya’ll in the loop, but not to the extent that I was.  If I have something really profound to say about a workout, I’ll say it, but that probably won’t happen cause I really have nothing useful to say anyway.  I’ll post my eats as much as I can, but I’m not going to make a huge deal about it.  I’m sure by now you all know I drink Shakeology every.damn.day, and I’m pretty sure you don’t need to see countless pictures of eggs.  So you can all breath a collective sigh of relief for that!

luckily, I eat all my eggs before they even stand a chance of being put in one basket, whew...crisis averted

I’m also going to blog when I want to, I don’t want to make it seem like a chore, or something I “have” to do.  So that could mean more than one post a day, or one every few days – just tryin’ to keep you on your toes!

So that’s the down and dirty, turns out I’m human after all and I have issues :).  Hopefully you guys can relate.  Also, J-Lance Armstrong is out in Moab mountain biking for the week, so it’s just me and the animals.  I don’t particularly like being home alone, so pray for me that I don’t just sit on my rear and eat my feelings all week – it could get ugly.

bad blogger I am

Oh, hey, so uh, whats been goin' on?  Sorry I wasn't around yesterday, I was busy um, washing my hair....

Terrible, just terrible, turns out I was doing something far more exciting than washing my hair. Truth =  I forgot and fell asleep...told ya it was exciting!  I'll do better, I promise.  Although, I was feeling a little crummy, probably due to far to many handfuls of random cereal and Swedish Fish, and was lucky I made it though my workout without completely giving up.  Even though I didn't give up, I was really lazy about it so it wasn't great, so I came home feeling grumpy.

Workout:  Livefit Day 33 - .....ummmm....

So, as it turns out, I was still feeling lazy and felt like my head needed a break, so I just wanted to do nothing and not think about working out or counting calories for one stinking day.  I have to admit, I have these types of days a lot, but sometimes I just hit a wall and need to zone out.  I try and eat well 85% of the time and stick to my workouts, but the rest of the time I just need a time-out from myself.....anyone relate?  I'm trying to get better at not beating myself up for it, and I always know I'll pick it back up, but I do it when I feel ready to give it my all, and giving it my all takes work folks!  So today was a break, it was nice, I drank margaritas after work...

on my mom's porch.  hey, looks like we need a refill...bartendeeeer!

Came home and  J-Bob Villa was doing an at-home version of 'This Old House' and was working on our backyard fence.  I would like to say I was a lot of help, but really I just kept going in and out of the backdoor telling him good job and grabbing hand fulls of trail mix

take this x10 = how much I really ate

I decided I better make myself useful or else I would get sucked into doing some manual labor, so I took a cue from June Cleaver and made dinner.

grilled greek pizza & bubbly water

I'm so glad tomorrow's Friday, I have been wanting this week to fly by cause Saturday we're picking up and bringing home our new family addition!  I'm so excited I can hardly wait.  You better believe there will be pics, lots of obnoxious, ridiculous pics!  Oh, and just I realized I will be a "mother" just in time for Mothers Day, so feel free to send me gifts.  You can email me for my address :)  I like sparkly things, pearls, and Swedish Fish - just the red ones.  Thanks!

I did kind of realize that, although I really want to post everyday, sometime life gets in the way, and the ol' blog takes a back seat.  Which come to think of it, is totally fine - its my blog and I can do what I want, when I want!  Yes, I realize that makes me sound like a 2 year old, but I could really care less. I will try to get it together tomorrow, and bring you back down to reality from this weird planet I'm on...

I may or may not be wearing my "space helmet"

Oh, I will also take a pic of the backyard-redo tomorrow when its light out.  It already looks hella better than it did before!  Have a great night lovlies, catch ya tomorrow.

Naked old men and Challenge Games Part 2

Hiya buddy!  Happy Tuesday to ya.  My day started off with a little bit of the usual...

i dipped this sammy in a LARGE amount of salsa

My afternoon looked a little like this...

Workout: Day 31 LiveFit - Legs
                             20 min. stairclimber

This workout was really great.  I pushed my legs hard today and it felt good.  Cardio wasn't on the schedule for today, but I had some time to kill before my Challenge Game (which was conveniently held at my gym), so I hopped on the stairclimb and did some easy steps.

Then it was off to the races! My second event was a kayak relay held in the gym pool.  We had another fun team, and toughed it out for a big win!

dream team #2!

ready to go!

cheering on Adam!  why am I standing like I have to take a turd??

It was so fun.  I wish I could do stuff like this all the time.  Maybe I'll just have to make up my own events and get strangers off the street to participate...I clearly have no friends, and I think its safe to say that I'm pretty sure I didn't make any  new ones as I was leaving the gym tonight. 

So, basically the locker rooms at the gym are connected by hallways, and you kind of have to weave around to get out.  Well I didn't take the right turn and ended up walking right into a locker room full of flabby, hairy, old naked men.  It felt like I stood there for an eternity before stumbling my way out. But the real question should be, why in Gods name wasn't their door closed, and WHY was it right next to the exit of the girls locker room/entrance to the women's?!  I think I have been scarred for life....


Once I stopped dry heaving, I made this for dinner

Veggie burger with carrots & hummus

Sorry for the barf-inducing post, but its not everyday you walk into a room full of bare-assed old folks.  So on that note, sweet dreams boys and girls!  I'm going to go wash my brain....

technical difficulties

So I suck at technology and my race pics aren't showing up, please stay on the line for your regularly scheduled programing (aka crappy blogging).

I need a web designer and IT nerd to take care of my blog for me.....