ATTACK! Of the vicious tigers

Hi, I hope this post finds you well :)

I am finally finally starting to feel better.  I can't believe I've been struggling with this thing for a week now.  I guess all of my never get sick finally caught up with me.  I promise I will never say I don't get sick ever ever ever again.

I did not do a 10 mile run on Friday as planned.  My 10 mile run turned into a 6 mile run during the first half mile where my calves let me know "Um, hey, we're still super sore, you are not doing a 10 mile run - nice try"

Then my 6 mile run turned into a 3 mile run with a 3 mile cool down.  Oops!

I had many problems during this run.  The first problem was my calves, the second problem was my polar heart rate monitor.  I don't know what I did in the days before my polar but lately if I look down and notice my polar is not recording I feel like there's no point in finishing the workout.  Well, I looked down and my watch informed me that my heart rate was 84.  I knew that was absolutely not correct.  Then after fiddling with the chest strap (while running) I got it to give me the correct number a few times but then it just went to "00."  Ugh, most annoying thing ever!  I continued to mess with the chest strap and finally gave up and just turned the whole thing off.  By that time I had other problems to worry about...

Where's a bathroom!!!  Without a doubt this is the most annoying problem that I've experienced as a runner.  While training for the marathon I had to make several bathroom stops on all of my long runs (17 miles, 19 miles x 2 and 22 miles) - basically the reason why I don't want to run further than 15 miles unless I absolutely have to, I was traumatized.  The moral of that story is dates are really good for you but not if you plan to go running. 

Anyways, I stopped running until I got to 3 miles

At 3 miles I stopped at a gas station and washed off the chest strap and finally got it working again.  I started the run back home and again needed a bathroom.  I was sick of all of the issues I was dealing with on what was supposed to be a nice 10 mile... or 6 mile run and so I just decided to walk the rest of the way home. 

After my fun experience on Friday I was ready to come back on Saturday and get a good run in... for real this time.  Apart from still having a cold my 11 miles on Saturday was really nice.  It was so good just to get out.  It was so gorgeous out too.  A little hot, started out at 65 degrees and was 75 by the time I got back, but all in all it was a really good run.

Today I haven't done too much.  It's nice to have a day "off" every now and again, although lately my day off has accidentily fallen on Wednesday or Thursday - I just don't end up doing anything, mostly because I'm lazy.  Then my weekends I end up playing catch up.  I tried to go for an early early morning run but only managed 1.5.  I wasn't totally feeling it mentally and when my knee started to complain I just decided that I was done.  I fit in about an hour of stretching instead :)

Then later I got attacked my some vicious tigers...

They wanted to eat us alive

We look terrified, don't we?  Actually, Mattox does - I didn't get the memo ;)

We finally managed to tame the wild tigers and they agreed to pose for a "normal" photo with us

Happy end of the week!  I'm excited about starting a new week - can't wait to see what this week will bring! :)

Ready to be back to "normal"... whatever that is

After getting 12 hours of sleep per night for two nights in a row (plus an hour nap) I'm starting to feel better.  I'm still not 100% but I'm feeling good enough to get out today.  I'm planning on a 10 mile run and stadiums later this evening with Rachel.  I guess we'll see about that.

I spent the morning in bed laughing with my best buds

My favorite quote of the morning:  "Leslie, I typed your symptoms into the thing up here and it says you could have network connectivity problems"

I think that's what I have!

What's the best cure for a cold?  I say healthy eats and exercise.  I used to believe that when you were sick you shouldn't exercise cause someone told me that it circulates all the germs and just makes things worse.  Uh, I think that's a big load of... lies :).  Now what I try to do is get LOTS of rest - I mean, why deny myself one of my favorite things when it'll speed up the healing process?  It just means I get to do my favorite thing without the guilt!  As far as exercise goes, I try to not to push myself too hard but still get in some exercise.  It seems to help.  That being said, 10 miles might be a little ambitious.  It's either 6 miles today and 14 tomorrow or 10 today and 10 tomorrow... or a lot next month.  Dang this 1000 miles in a year goal!!

Anyways, I will be back later today with (hopefully) something a little more interesting to talk about :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Under the weather

For the past several days I've been fighting the beginnings of a cold...

I haven't been sick in over a year and before that when I would get sick it was never so bad that I had to stay in bed/around the house.  It was always bad enough so that I would be absolutely miserable while going to school, studying, teaching and babysitting.  Wait, did I say babysitting?  Oh no, I never babysit while I'm sick.  Oops, you caught me...

Anyways, this year I've been around sick kids almost weekly and have stayed well.  I do sometimes get that "I think I'm coming down with something" feeling but it never develops into anything.  Exercising, eating healthy and washing your hands really do amazing things for you :)

All that to say that whatever I've been fighting was not better or gone today, it was worse.  I still wouldn't say I have a full blown cold though.  I have a slight headache and a slight sore throat.  That's about it.  Even though I'm feeling pretty decent I spent a lot of my day in bed reading/computering.  I did end up making myself go for a 3 mile run midday (23:20) and got in some P90X.

Smokey doing abs with me

My cat tries to cuddle with me when I'm working out and then gets mad at me for moving around so much

He gets kicked out a lot...

I taught one ballet class today.  I forgot to mention that I also half lost my voice - this makes teaching a group of 9 three year olds quite an adventure.  We do a dance to a classical piano version of The Hokey Pokey in ballet class and I sing the words.  Today I told them all to help me out and sing very loudly.  I'm so glad they're all only 3 and don't really know how awful I sing... with or without my voice.

I'm about half way through P90X Shoulders & Arms.  It's one of the easier workouts to get through but all I want to do is go to bed or watch a movie.  Story of my day =/

We'll see who wins.

Sleepy Sharon?  Or this girl... who I should probably name crazy Sharon or something similar



Holy Cannoli CALVES!!!

Just to be clear, I don't actually say "holy cannoli" in real life.  I mean, who does that ;)

But oh my goodness!  Remember how I said the first run in my Vibrums I felt nothing?  Then I went for a 3 mile run and by the end I was like okay... I'm starting to feel it.  Well, the rest of the day I realized that my calves were much more sore than I originally thought.  Today when I hopped out of bed in the morning my exact thoughts were "OH MY GOSH, CALVES!!!"

I for sure felt them this morning

I don't want to make it sound like my calves were just dying because they weren't but I could definitely tell that when I wore Vibrum Fivefingers I had used different muscles than I usually do when wearing my normal Sauconys.  I'm not used to my calves being sore.  During the marathon my calves hurt like CRAZZZZY but the next day they were fine so I was surprised that I had any pain at all today and definitely shocked that it was more than just a little soreness.

Anyways, I didn't let my calves cramp my style

It poured and poured and poured and poured out today.  Florida's lame version of snow.  I didn't have any outside workouts planned for today.  For once the rain didn't mess up any plans :)

I did P90X plyo and Ab Ripper X before I left the house.  I thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures of myself doing plyo...

Hahaha, obviously NOT the best idea I've ever had

Then I got to hang out with my favorite little girl

This is right after I rescued her from older brother so she's not quite her usual bubbly self

When I came home I caught up on P90X Legs & Back

Overtraining?  Yeah, probably.  I have this thing where I feel the need to play catch up if I miss a day.

Oh well, I did it, I'm all caught up, I feel accomplished! 

Church, Hummus and Vibrums

Happy end of the week! :)

For once I had a weekend where I was home not working for both Saturday and Sunday.  My thoughts?  I could get used to this ;)

I definitely used the weekend to get caught up on a lot of sleep and all the workouts I missed during the week.

I started out my morning with church :)

I know I live in Florida but why wear a dress in 42 degree weather when you can get away with wearing jeans?

After church I went shopping and bought a new running shirt

It's white and boring but it crisscrosses in the back and fits somewhat loosely which is nice since running pants cut in at awkward places and then the tight running shirts don't hide a thing.

At the Disney expo I bought a fabulous pair of running shorts with red dots all over them (I'm sure you'll see them soon enough) but none of my shirts match.  I know I'm crazy but I just don't like running in things that obviously clash.  The only shirt that matches is blue and I only dress in red white and blue when it's close to the 4th of July.  I promise I really am patriotic.

I also stopped at Publix and bought... wait for it...

Three 17oz "family size" tubs of Sabra Original Hummus (I like to call them "Sharon size"), one container of Publix roasted red pepper hummus and a pack of the travel hummus.  I'm pretty sure the check out lady and bagger boy think I am crazy - which I am so who cares.  I am absolutely addicted to hummus.  One of the 17oz hummus tubs was for my sister but if it had been for me too I still would probably be out of hummus by the end of the week.  I wouldn't be surprised if hummus is running through my veins at this point. 

After scarfing down some hummus in the car (ha, wish I had a picture of this) I picked up Rachel and we ran stadiums for the 3rd time this week!  3 is always our goal but it rarely happens.  We almost always miss for one reason or another.

And last but not least... dun dun dun

I took my Vibrum Fivefingers out for their maiden voyage.

I've heard that it takes awhile to get used to them and to take it really slow at first.  I went for 1.5 miles and... they felt different but not hard and none of my muscles complained.  Maybe it wasn't long enough of a test run.  My only thought was "hm, my feet are kind of cold"

I'll definitely be using them some more during the upcoming week

Hope you all had a wonderful Sunday and I hope the upcoming week treats you well! :)

Inspiration

I started off my day on a high-note.  What I absolutely love the most about blogging is other people's posts.  I LOVE reading about the awesome things others are accomplishing, about how they're becoming stronger both physically and mentally.  I love reading about new healthy foods and hearing about new fitness products - it would take me a long time to found out about these things if I wasn't reading blogs.  I am continually inspired to push for more in my workouts and in my everyday life because I hear day in and day out from these amazing and inspiring women (It's not that I don't like men - promise, I just don't read any blogs written by men yet).

This morning I opened up blogger and read something that is going to keep me going for a long time...

Kristin D. over at Aqufit Blog wrote an incredible post entitled This is Why I Do It

If you haven't read it already, check it out!

When I talk about my fitness goals I often get asked the question "Why?  Why do you want to run a marathon?  Why do you want to run an ultra marathon?  Why do you want to get involved in Crossfit?"

I always find it hard to put into words exactly why I feel the need to push my limits and find out what I'm made of.  Whatever it is, there is definitely something inside of me that is hungry for more, that desires to be the strongest me that I can possibly be.  I don't want to just get to a happy place and stay there, I want to keep improving and keep growing. 

Kristin put it perfectly:

This is why I do it. For the quiet, for the pain, for the exquisite moments of triumph that form inevitably out of all out effort.  It is why I'll never stop rowing, despite the initial fear. It's why it's always worth it to give it your all: on the rower, up the mountain, during your first marathon. Always.

Since I haven't done Crossfit (yet!) I'm replacing a few words:

This is why I do it. For the quiet, for the pain, for the exquisite moments of triumph that form inevitably out of all out effort. It is why I'll never stop running, despite the initial fear. It's why it's always worth it to give it your all: up the mountain, during your first marathon, in life. Always.

LOVE!

I had this thought running through my head as I ran 10 miles this afternoon.  I had the best run that I've had in a long time.  I'm sure it was good for many reasons but I attributed at least some of the motivation during the run to this statement. 

Then crazy me told Rachel we could run stadiums today so after a shower, some food and knee icing I was off to run some more.  Surprisingly, running stadiums was awesome as well.  I just had a really on day when it came to working out.  I guess I had to have an on day with something because I certainly didn't for the rest of the day :)

I made Rachel stop at the store with me to pick up a few things on the way home.  We filled the basket with hummus... and a few other things ;).  We took forever because I'm obsessed with the Greenwise Publix.  We don't have Whole Food or Trader Joes in Gainesville =( but we do have a few Mother Earth Supermarkets and the Greenwise Publix. 

Got in line, put everything on the belt and then realized I didn't have my wallet adfljsadflkj. 

While we were leaving several cars all tried to smash into me at once.  That was fun.  Sometimes I think my car must have the invisible button turned on. 

My plan for the rest of the night?  Bed before 10 :)





Charlie & Lola and Lots of Cuddling

I spent my day cuddling with this little cutie :)

Oh my goodness!

I tried to sneak him out of the house in my purse but his mom caught me ;)

Just kidding of course

But I (allllllmost) wanted to

Who could resist this little guy?  Even with the horrible picture quality he's adorable

Will is 4 weeks old today and he pretty much just slept the 4 hours his mom left him with me

When he wasn't sleeping he was snuggling (happily!) with me

No crying at all!

This is most likely because he's a great baby but I'm going to throw in that I am also an amazing babysitter ;)

After snuggling with Will for the first part of my day I made a quick stop at the mall to return several items I ordered online.  Love online ordering, hate when things look way better on the models (uh, which is pretty much always).  It makes everything okay though that I can so easily just return the unwanted items to the store in the mall.

Then I headed off to babysitting job #2.  Reid was napping so I caught up on 30 Rock, The Office and started watching Tabitha's Salon Takeover... which I've never watched before.  Then he woke up and we played outside and watched Charlie and Lola.  I think I really like Charlie and Lola... I know, sad

Basically the cutest kids show ever.  British accents melt my heart, always.

Workouts?  Uh, what's that?

Maybe later...

Today I was supposed to do P90X Chest & Back and Ab Ripper X, some time with my new hula hoop and some time spent on my foam roller

We shall see... I'm making no promises

Run Like A Girl

Workout: Stadiums/40 mins, 6 mile run/53:45m

This morning I made it to the stadium for a glorious workout.  It was the perfect temperature, about 42 degrees.  It's been awhile since I've done stadiums in the morning.  I keep getting rained out or schedule just doesn't allow for it... orrrr I plan to go and can't seem to drag myself out of bed in the morning.

I didn't realize how much REST marathon running required.  I thought rest meant "don't run".  Maybe it does for some people but for me that meant a lot more sleep than my body usually needs (and it usually needs a lot).  It was workin hard to repair all those muscles :)

Then right around lunchtime I went for a 6 mile run.  This has been my longest run since the marathon.  I was pretty sure it would go well, my 3 mile runs have been great the past week.  Sure enough, I feel like I'm back to normal.

Today I wore my new running skirt.  I've been seeing them around recently and finally broke down and bought one at the expo at the Disney Marathon.  I thought they were silly at first but I've decided I really like them.  Why not run like a girl?  Not to say I don't run like a girl when I wear shorts or compression tights but I felt super girly.  Part of me enjoyed feeling girly while running, you know, all that girl power stuff but the other part of me felt a little self conscious.  They were super comfy though and I'm sure I'll get over the self conscious bit.  In all honesty I could care less what people driving by think of me.

Sometimes I run like a pirate too ;)

Then I came home and almost burned the house down ;).  Well okay, I just made kale chips.  I have a bad track record with any food that you have to keep a close eye on.  Any nut toasting or kale chip making usually ends up in at least one completely charred batch.  Oops!  After I realized I had burned them the fire alarm decided to also let me know that I had burned them... then the battery died so it's been making it's annoying "replace my batteries now" sound.  Second batch was a success - mmm, what a delicious, healthy and mostly easy snack to make (if you're good at not burning things that is...).

I hope you all have had a productive day!  Or a relaxing day!  I like productive and relaxing but none of that unplanned bored/do nothing days.  Oh wait, I forgot, only people like me who don't have real jobs have time for those kind of days ;).

Post run:  Dang it was hot out there!

Florida, The Sunshine State

"The Sunshine State"

Uh, huh... LIES! 

It rained all day Sunday, was totally gross out yesterday (no rain but cloudy/threatening rain and muggy all day) and then rained this morning.  I realize I really shouldn't complain.  At least it's not snow.  I know some people would kill for the 68 degree high we're supposed to have today. 

I'm just bummed because I can't seem to fit in my stadium workouts and I really do love those stadium workouts.  I mean common, who doesn't love running up and down stairs?! ;)

It's weeks like this week that I wish I had a gym membership. 

I guess that means it's time to finally get it together, suck it up and sign up to go to the Crossfit gym.  I'm super excited about trying out Crossfit but I really don't want to go alone.  If I had a friend who did Crossfit here it would make going for the first time so much less intimidating.  I know that once I go and get that initial "I'm new and have no idea what I'm doing or who any of you are" out of the way that I will be happy.

In completely unrelated news...

I've recently developed an addiction to nut butters.  I eat them straight out of the jar and end up finishing off the jar in about 2-3 days.  I know, it's crazy.  I started this habit when I was running about 30 miles a week so I told myself it was okay.  Suddenly (or maybe not suddenly, don't remember if it was a problem at first though) the nut butters are just destroying my stomach.  Within 5 minutes of eating a spoonful my stomach starts really protesting and feels so sour and nauseous.  I'm a wimp but last week before I figured out it was the almond butter I would have some before working out and then would end up not working out because my stomach was feeling so terrible. 

I was really enjoying the almond butter so I'm disappointed to find that it's causing me problems.  It's so healthy, I don't understand why my stomach can't seem to digest it.  It's like it just sits there undigested at the top of my stomach turning things sour =/.  I did some "research" on nut butters and apparently I'm not the only one that has this trouble.  However, the only other people who seem to have trouble digesting nut butter are people who have celiac disease.  Uh, what?  Their thought is that they can't process fats because their digestive system has been messed up after years of eating gluten.  I'm pretty positive that I do not have celiac disease and I'm pretty sure it's just the nut butters that I'm having trouble with so I don't think it has anything to do with the ability or inability of my system to digest fats.  Maybe I should try some on or in something instead of straight out of the jar ;).

Any foods that you have trouble with that don't seem to be a problem for others? 

Fun Fitness or Gimmick?

As much as I love health and fitness sometimes the industry just drives me nuts.  I completely believe that their absolute top priority is not to get us to our peak fitness level... it's without a doubt to make money. 

All those quick fix fitness gadgets (Shakeweight, ab circle pro, etc) are the worst.  I'm not saying they can't do anything for you, it just bothers me that they are marketed as perfect fitness tools.  All you have to do is shake this weight around for a few minutes everyday and you'll look like these fitness models who work their butts off all day to get this toned... uh, yeah... sure.

So anyways, all that to say...

I gave in and I bought this little fun toy:

Yes, I bought a weighted (rainbow!) hula hoop

It came in the mail today and after putting it together I got straight to play, I mean work ;)

Not to toot my own horn or anything but I am amazing at hula hooping.  I've won every hula hooping contest I've been in since... well ever since I've been in a hula hooping contest.  I think my record is 15 minutes and then I got bored and thought 15 minutes was a decent enough time to hula hoop so then I stopped.

I still love hula hooping so I figured, well what could it hurt.  A little hula hooping while I watch some TV.  If nothing else I will be standing instead of sitting.

I've read amazing reviews on this thing.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up but I've heard it's fabulous for abs.  I guess we shall see :)

Bad bad blogger...

Hello!

Long time no post!  I know, I know.  Maybe I am not cut out to be a blogger...

Despite my past bad posting habits (or complete lack of habits) I'm going to give it another go!

I'm trying a new blog method - instead of long posts where I feel like I need to cover everything and anything I will be trying short posts.  I think I will be able to stay on top of things that way.

Since I haven't posted in ages though, I'll throw out a little bit of a recap - only the exciting stuff of course :)

On January 9 I ran in my first ever marathon!

It was not my best run.  I had a goal of under 4 hours and ended up finishing in 4:26:13.  I had been so busy the day before the race that I forgot to drink (BIG oops!).  I think I was only slightly dehydrated on Sunday but it created a few problems I've never experienced before while running and I was totally unprepared. 

I had a cramp for about 5 miles that I just could not get rid of.  On top of the cramp I had major nausea issues for the majority of the race.  The nausea was so bad that I couldn't get down any GUs.  Not one for the whole race. 

On the positive side of things, I had zero knee problems!  Not even a twinge!  That was awesome since I had other problems that I hadn't anticipated.

Overall, I'm happy with my first race.  I sprinted across the finish line and I DID IT!  If I had hit that sub 4 hour goal on my first marathon every single marathon afterwards would be tough to PR in.  I'm pretty sure I can beat my time next time around.

I'm healing up quickly.  Last week I went on two short and very slowww runs.  I'm looking forward to getting out again this week and start kicking some butt! 

Next race I'm going to try out some water proof make-up.  This look is just not okay ;)