Year: 2015

Hello and happy Monday! Today I am going to link up with Tara over at Running ‘n’ Reading for my weekend update.

Hello, hello! Well, this week seems to be flying by and I’ve gotten behind on my blogging. Let’s catch up on training and life!

Monday was a nice easy recovery run and yoga that evening. I feel like I have settled into a good pattern with following my Sunday long run with an easy day and yoga fits in great with that schedule. This week was the last week of our six-week class, but we are starting another session again in two weeks. I’m excited to keep going with it. I can tell that I am more mindful of my breathing in general, and I definitely am doing more stretching (outside of class) that I was before.

So I told y’all last week that we worked on bakasana/crow pose and that if I got it down I would post a picture. We worked on it again this week and after a little practice, this is the result. Ha! I’m getting there. I really wish I had thought to shut my closet (not letting it bother me, not letting it bother me, definitely not doing that pose again …)

Tuesday morning I did an easy run on the treadmill, as I was later getting started than usual. I figured running inside would be the smart thing to do. And then this happened …

I mean really? Puddles of sweat on the treadmill. Our treadmill is not located in the most air-conditioned room and it does tend to get a little bit toasty in there, but I couldn’t believe that it was this bad. I think next time I might just go outside. At least you are creating your own little breeze that way.

Tuesday evening Daniel and I ran some hills! Coach says I gotta get ready for the bridges in NYC. Oh boy.

Wednesday morning, Lizzie and I headed over to Rebecca’s to do part of her long run for the week with her. Her middle eight miles were at marathon pace, and obviously it is better to do that with friends, so we rallied and she killed it!

After our run that morning, I had a short road trip and I was all excited to try out an audio book. The storage on my old phone was completely full (from way too much music), so I had only about five apps downloaded. Since we got our new phones, I feel like I am in a new era. It’s amazing how many things you can actually do with a smart phone. Oh my gosh, you guys, and check this out … Isn’t it beautiful?

I have to give my cousin Erin credit for this one. I mean, I have always color coded my closet, but I had never thought to color categorize my phone. I had them categorized by function before, but this is so much more fun. Sure, I can’t find anything, but it makes me happy while I am searching!

So where was I? Ahh yes, iBooks (which is what I thought was audio books). I downloaded my book the night before and was looking forward to listening to a book in the car, so that I would feel like I am learning something and not just wasting time mindlessly listening/singing to music. I was so sad once I got on the road figured out that my iBook was not going to read itself to me. And now I own a paperback copy of the book and an iBook, so I couldn’t justify buying it again on audio books. I texted Daniel to see if he could believe the travesty and he was all like, yeah I knew that, I was wondering why you were buying an iBook. Perfect, thanks honey 🙂 So back to my road jamz it was. At least I enjoyed myself.

And when I got home last night, I had a Stitch Fix box waiting for me! It’s like Christmas in July! I don’t know how they do it, but I’ve had amazing luck with the things they have sent me. This time I got some boot cut jeans (btw, are those back in style?), a short-sleeved black polka dot top, a sleeveless flowy top, a maxi dress and a black leather tote. I really like all of it. Check it out.

Thursday is usually a double day, but I have a meeting to go to this evening (marathon training kick off for Pensacola!), so I combined my runs this morning. I did five with Daniel before work and then Rebecca and Lizzie came over a little later and we did eight more. And we saw a snake. It slithered right in front of us on the sidewalk. Of course we had to stop and photograph the incident, because you know #bloglife.

Luckily we escaped, and made it home safely.

Daniel and I have really gotten into the Tour de France in the evenings. I’m not a biker at all, and I don’t think I understand half of the rules that they have, but I really enjoy watching it. We’ve been switching between the Tour and the Pan American Games. So many good sporting events to watch … I love it. It is a nice break from our usuals, Shark Tank and The Profit.

Well, I think we are pretty much caught up now, and yes I do realize that was kind of all over the place (hence the name of the post). I hope that your week is flying by as well. Tomorrow is Friday, so that’s the good news! I’m off to meet the members of my training group! Gotta run!

As promised, here is the next installment of my ‘Meb for Mortals’ summary … Training.

There was a lot of good information in this chapter and I tried to pick out things that really stuck out to me (i.e., things that I probably don’t always do or needed to be reminded of or just things that I thought were interesting).

• It is better to be undertrained than overtrained. We have to learn to tell the difference between acceptable short-term fatigue and the lingering fatigue that can lead to performance decreases and injury. One of the most challenging things about marathon training can definitely be getting to the start line healthy.
• You should leave a workout being able to do more. Save the racing for race day. Any guys out there reading this? That one is for you 🙂
• Always based your training goals on where you are now. Don’t try to mimic what you read or hear others are doing – you don’t know how long it took them to get to that level. By regularly aiming a little higher, you can keep progressing. This one is definitely tough. It is so easy to compare yourself to others or to where you were at a different time or stage in life, but that won’t change where you are now. All you can do now is keep putting in the hard work and be your best self today.
• Perhaps more than any other sport, running rewards regularity. Implicit in patiently making small amounts of progress is training consistently. If you struggle with consistency, get some training partners. Making yourself accountable to others is a sign of commitment. I highly, highly recommend training with other people! Running with other people has totally transformed my running.
• Most elite runners run twice a day most days of the week. Doing so is a better way to run high mileage than aiming for the same volume one run a week, because you space out the pounding and can get more of a training effect. You lower your injury risk because you are spreading out the pounding over the course of the day. Another good day for doubling is a recovery day. In a situation where you are doing a track workout on a Tuesday night after work, and then getting up early the next morning to run 10 miles before work. That’s cramming a lot of work into a short period of time.
• If you are getting ready for a longer race, such as a half or a marathon, then he doesn’t suggest doing a lot of doubles until you are running at least 55 miles per week, because for those type of races you want the strength that comes from longer once-a-day runs.
• You’ll make greater gains in fitness by mixing things up, with different days having different emphases, as opposed to running the same distance and same pace every run. Variety in how far and how hard you run keeps things interesting, meaning that you’ll be more motivated to be consistent. Running faster some days and slower will mean that you will run with slightly different form. Running longer some days and shorter others will mean that on some days you will have less pounding. Running hilly courses some days and flatter courses others, or on hard surfaces some days and soft surfaces others, will cause you to use different muscles. Reducing the repeated stress is the key to reducing injury.
• The various types of runs that he does (or has done at some point over the course of his career) are the following: long runs, tempo runs, interval workouts, recovery runs, fartleks, striders, hill repeats and altitude training.
• In a good marathon training cycle, he recommends getting several runs of more than 20 miles and building your long run by a couple of miles each week so that by race day, you’ve gone longer than 20 miles a few times.
• Long runs are primarily about covering the distance and should leave you pleasantly tired, but not exhausted. You shouldn’t feel beat up the day after your long run. He recommends taking at least 1 recovery day after, where you run easy without a lot of soreness or stiffness. Long runs are important even if you’re not training for a marathon. All runners benefit from improving their endurance.
• Key workouts aren’t assigned a specific day of the week. They should be done on the days that make the most sense in conjunction with the rest of your schedule. The important thing is to allow recovery days between them – don’t follow a long run with an interval workout, or a tempo run with a long run.

Good stuff! Hopefully you learned something or read something that you needed to be reminded of.

Gotta run!

As per usual, today was long-run day. I had an 18 mile long-run on the schedule with a goal pace of 7:30 to 7:50. What I actually did was …

I didn’t quite get the pace that I was supposed to, but I was still very pleased with this run! Given the conditions that we live with here on the gulf coast during the summer, I’ll definitely take it. I made a last minute decision on the fueling for the run, which wasn’t really all that smart. Smart to fuel, yes. Not smart to have not planned it out better. I drank UCAN on the way to the run, when I really should’ve had it an hour or so before we started (it is a time released source of glucose). My pace was definitely fading mid-way through the run, but once the UCAN got into my system, I pepped up and finished the run strong. I really like using the UCAN packets pre-run, because one pouch will sustain you for an entire long run and you don’t have to carry gels. I still get water along the way from random water fountains, bathrooms, spickets on the side of the buildings, etc. but not having to carry gels or a bottle is so nice.

Post-run coffee loft hangs.

And now, onto the main event here, which is my “review” of ‘Meb for Mortals.’ The word review here is probably not accurate though, as it will be more of a summary. I have a very systematic approach when I read non-fiction books. The first step is to actually read the book. The second step is to go back with a highlighter (and a straight edge, obviously) and mark different things that stood out to me. The last step is to make an outline of the book and type out the things that I highlighted. I know this seems overkill and probably is, but I take away so much more from a book if I do it this way. I can read a book in no time, but I have a much greater chance of learning and retaining the information if I do it this way.

The purpose of ‘Meb for Mortals’ is to show everyday (i.e., mortal) runners how to put into practice the training, nutritional and mental principles that Meb has used throughout his amazing career, which includes an Olympic silver medal in 2004 and winning the 2009 New York City Marathon and the 2014 Boston Marathon.

I’ve had people ask me before why I like running so much or how I fell in love with running. It is almost difficult to answer that if the person doesn’t “get it.” There is an awesome quote in the book that I feel like perfectly conveys my love of running. He writes, “If you’re like me, you appreciate how running improves your life. You like how you feel while you’re running and after a run. You like being healthier and more in control of your destiny. You like the camaraderie and the time alone. You like being outside enjoying nature. You like pushing yourself and the satisfaction that comes from working toward a goal. You like how clear-cut it is, how you get out of it what you put into it. You like that you get to do it on your terms, as casually or seriously as you want. You simply like telling yourself, “I’m a runner.””

Um, 1,000 times yes! I’m sure a lot of runners can identify and would agree that is why we run.

So, here are some things about ‘Meb for Mortals’ that stood out to me that I thought will be useful to retain.

Meb has three principles that he applies for success in life and in running: good goals, commitment, and hard work. Note that only one of those items is physical (the hard work) and that the other two are psychological. That goes to show us just how important the mental side of running is.

Good Goals

• Running is well suited to goal setting, because your progress can be quantified and tracked.
• A good goal should have personal meaning. It should be something you want to do for yourself, not just to meet someone else’s expectations. He says, “Let your running be about your own hopes and dreams.”
• A good goal is specific. Goals such as I want to run well or run faster are more subjective and harder to measure, which also means that you might not feel as accomplished when you progress towards the ambiguous goal.
• A good goal is challenging but realistic, requiring you to reach outside of your comfort zone but staying within the realm of possibility.
• A good goal has a time limit. He notes that 3 to 6 months is a good range for most running goals, but also recommends setting yearly and longer-term goals as well. He suggests that you keep track of your training with a log so that you can evaluate your progress each week and stay focused on your goals.
• He recommends having several goals going into a race, staring with your ultimate goal and working downward to several other potential outcomes that would also still be worthy accomplishments.

Commitment

• He says that having a good goal is the first step and that the hard work is how you reach that goal, but the hard work doesn’t just happen because you have a goal. It comes through commitment.
• He says that commitment means living your life in a way that makes you better prepared to meet your goals. This comes by regularly making decisions that contribute to, rather than detract from, your goals.
• He talks in terms of making choices, not sacrifices. He says that the word sacrifice has a negative connotation and that thinking that you are denying yourself of something can make your goals feel more like burdens. He says that choice has a connotation of working towards something that is important to you. Thinking of your decisions as choices, not sacrifices, gives the feeling that you’re in control.
• He writes, “Just as the marathon is about patience, life is about overcoming obstacles and having patience. Marathons and other successes teach us delayed gratification. The journey sometimes brings out the best in us. Start with one step at a time, then 1 mile at a time, and you will see how far you can go.”
• Success comes from peace of mind, knowing that you have given it your all and done your best.

Hard Work (I plan to break up this final principle, which is where a lot of the meat of this book is, into separate posts).

• Training
• Racing
• Fueling
• Strengthening, stretching and cross-training
• Recovering

What goals are you working towards currently? I’d love to hear about them!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Last time I left you, I was on a mission to read ‘Meb for Mortals.’ Well, I spent some time here …

and finished that up yesterday. I will be coming at you with a summary very soon. I found the book to be very easy to read and very informative. There were lots of little helpful nuggets in there that I definitely want to try to incorporate into my training and that I think will also be helpful in my coaching.

Let’s see what else has been going on in the meantime …

I made some Blue Apron New England style shrimp salad. This one wasn’t our favorite, but it wasn’t terrible. We have access to really fresh seafood locally, so I don’t think there was any way this could’ve lived up to our expectations. That and I think I put a tad much tabasco in it. They sent what had to have been the world’s tiniest bottle of tabasco and said add as much as you’d like, so I figured that I would just use the whole bottle. Oh well. You live. You learn.

Daniel and I joined Rebecca for an easy 5 miles Thursday evening and then headed over to Manci’s in downtown Daphne for dinner. The restaurant was once somewhat of a historical landmark in the area and was known for its seafood poboys and burgers (which were featured in Southern Living and Coastal Living magazines as well as on Diners, Drive-In’s & Dives). It has recently opened back up under new management and they have done some renovations, but have kept a lot of the original atmosphere. We like it because we can go sit outside on the porch post-run. Case in point.

We also recently got a Chicken Salad Chick here locally. They have locations all over the southeast, and it was founded in Auburn. I had never been to one, but my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law absolutely love it, so I was eager to try it out.

I got Daniel the “Buffalo Barclay” because the description said, “Craving wings? This is definitely the choice for you.” He isn’t really a chicken salad kind of guy, but I figured that if I brought home something that allegedly tasted like wings he would be more inclined to try it. I tried the “Luau Lydia” with pineapple & macadamia nuts. They were both excellent! There are so many more flavors to choose from that we will definitely have to go back.

This morning, my mom and I set out on an “adventure” walk to get coffee.

6 miles and two iced coffees later, we had to call a taxi (i.e., my dad) to come take us home. He picked us up in the boat and we tootled home, looking at the piers, birds, etc. The bay was full of seagulls, pelicans and porpoise! I tried to get a good picture of the porpoise, but was not successful with that today. Sometimes we can drive slowly through their feeding spot and they will stop and follow along behind our wake, jumping and playing, but they didn’t do that today. I did get a pretty decent shot of a pelican diving down for a fish though.

My dad said that I needed to show this picture to my training group and tell them that they needed to follow along and dive head first into marathon training. Yes! Love it.

I hope y’all are enjoying your weekend! Gotta run!

Let’s catch up with what has been going on since we last talked …

Monday I decided to get a massage, which is definitely NOT a normal thing for me. In fact, I haven’t had one in over 3 years I am fairly certain. It only seemed fitting after my post about anxiety that I do something relaxing though. I actually had a gift certificate that Daniel gave me for Christmas in 2013 that I had never used (relax much?), and even though it had an expiration date, thankfully they still let me use it. I’m not really big on having strangers touch me, but I actually found the whole experience to be very nice and VERY relaxing. I was not ready for it to be over!

After that, I headed to my “yoga for runners” class at RW. I was so zen by the end of this day! The classes seem to be getting a little big more challenging each week and this week we learned the crow pose. We have mainly just been doing more stretching type of things before this, so I was excited to try something challenging (not that I can do the stretching poses at all, but still). Here’s what it theoretically looks like (and no, this isn’t me).

Maybe next week I will have it mastered and can get a picture. I wouldn’t count too much on that though.

Tuesday was a double run day. I did a humid, hilly run that morning. As I was running, I had a revelation that when you combine humidity and hills you literally end up with humility. The total elevation gain for my run was just under 500 feet, which probably isn’t much to some of you out there, but for lower AL, that is a hilly run! I tend to avoid hills at all cost, but I know that they will make me stronger and I’m going to have to run a few of them in New York so might as well get to it.

Tuesday evening was the usual group run at RW. I met at the store a little early to discuss the marathon training group that I will be leading (eek!). The official kickoff is next Thursday and the group will be training for the Pensacola Marathon on November 8th. I am really looking forward to this. Runners are awesome in general, so I know we will have a fun group and I can’t wait to get to know everyone and hopefully help them reach their marathon goals. After the meeting, we ran an easy 6 miles. Lizzie, Rebecca, Savannah and I after the run (i.e., sweaty and happy) …

And today we are back to workout Wednesday! Today’s workout was a 3 mile warm up, 5 mile tempo, and a 3 mile cool down. My goal range for the tempo portion was 6:30 to 6:35 pace.

A tempo run is a faster-paced workout also known as a lactate-threshold (LT) run. Tempo pace should be “comfortably hard.” Tempo running improves a crucial physiological variable for running success, our metabolic fitness, by increasing your LT, or the point at which the body fatigues at a certain pace. During tempo runs, lactate and hydrogen ions—by-products of metabolism—are released into the muscles. The ions make the muscles acidic, and eventually lead to fatigue. The better trained you become, the higher you push your “threshold,” meaning your muscles become better at using these by-products. The result is less-acidic muscles (that is, muscles that haven’t reached their new “threshold”), so they keep on contracting, letting you run farther and faster.

My actual paces for the tempo portion were 6:35, 6:35, 6:33, 6:29, 6:25. I was very pleasantly surprised that I was able to hit these paces! I had already checked the temperature and humidity this morning and had my adjusted pace ready to go if I needed a “B” goal for the workout. If you missed my post on that, check it out here.

Next week is 16 weeks out from the NYC Marathon (November 1st)! This is the race that I will be training for (while the group I am leading trains for Pensacola), so my “official” training is going to be getting started next week. I’ll probably do some weekly training summary posts just to keep it organized and be able to look back on my workouts and mileage totals for the next race I train for. I enjoy reading those types of posts from other people, so hopefully y’all will find it interesting as well (or at least the runners out there that are reading will).

That’s all I’ve got for now. I am fixing to spend some time with Meb (unfortunately via his book and not in real life) and learn how to run, think and eat like a champion marathoner. Sounds intriguing, no? I will let you know what I find out 🙂

Gotta run!

Alright y’all, in an effort to #keepitreal here, I’m going to do a post about anxiety. I know I mentioned in the About Me section of my blog that I am an introvert, but for those of you who may have missed that, I’ll say it again. I am introverted. In fact, I have a strong preference of introversion over extraversion (78% to be exact (and I successfully resisted the urge to round that up to a nice round number like 80% for you)). I am currently reading a book called ‘Gaining, The Truth about Life after Eating Disorders’ and I have learned so much from it. Here are some things that are on point with what I am trying to convey in this post.

Everyone experiences three interlocking lives, which together shape his or her individual sense of identity.

• The first is an inner life of emotions, sensations and imagination.
• The second is lived through relationships with family and friends.
• The third is experienced through culture and society.

Ideally, these three lives develop like concentric circles, with one’s inner self secured in the center, strengthened by close relationships and able to respond independently to culture. Well, people who develop eating disorders live “out-of-order” so to speak. They have difficulty trusting their instincts, their relationships make them feel anxious and so instead of engaging with the outer world from a position of internal strength, they substitute the demands of media culture for their core beliefs and in effect, live “outside in.” As a side note here, I haven’t seen the new Pixar movie ‘Inside Out,’ but I’ve heard that it is really good and is very psychologically based. I am guessing that it is touching on this very concept. I really want to see it!

Gaining back a full, healthy life in the wake of an eating disorder is largely a process of restoring these circles to their rightful order. The first challenge is to learn and respect who you are, your biology, your calling, your temperament. Being introverted is a big part of my make up and so I am trying to be more mindful of that and truly understand how it makes me who I am and learn how to deal with the issues that arise because of it. Check out this article about introverts. If you are introverted, you will be all like “Yes!” at least 10 times.

Last week I had a baby shower to go to. Well, I went and I am so glad that I did, but getting there was a really big struggle.

I love my small group girls, but social interaction in a purely social setting (i.e., a baby showers, wedding showers, class reunions, etc.) majorly stresses me out. See #2 in above-referenced article regarding small talk. I came up with so many good (in my head) excuses that I didn’t need to go to the shower … the power *almost* went out, I need to spend some quality time with Daniel (even though he made plans to hang out with the guys in the group during the shower), I really need to cook that last Blue Apron meal or it is going to go bad, we have so. much. laundry to do, didn’t I maybe have a root canal scheduled this evening? You get the point, I was having some major anxiety.

The solution in this case was not that I was able to eliminate the anxiety, but I was able to somewhat manage it. Through some prayer, self pep talks and encouraging texts from Daniel, I decided to go to the shower and I survived, even enjoyed myself! The big step for me was to not just avoid the situation because of my anxiety, but to face it head on.

I’m not going to get into all of the genetic, chemical components of anxiety and depression here (just because this post is already getting way too long), other than just to say that they are actual imbalances in serotonin levels. Normally serotonin helps us to regulate our mood, anxiety, appetites, etc., but the chemical becomes active in the face of danger as it triggers the fight-or-flight instinct. It heightens fear. People with high serotonin levels can get stuck in freeze, fight or flight mode, even when not under any actual threat, which causes a constant state of anxiety. So, with all that being said, you might be able to “get through” depression or anxiety on your own, but there is no shame in taking medication for these medical conditions. Stoicism is not a ticket to health or happiness.

One lie that I think many of us might believe is that a good Christian doesn’t ever feel anxious or depressed. We feel like negative or painful emotions are signs of a weak faith. The danger here is that we can end up numbing our emotions so that we do not feel anything “bad.” It is natural for us to have negative reactions to painful things and problems in our life. Jesus himself felt anxiety. Mark 14:32-34 says, “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them.” The key here is Jesus’ reaction to the anxiety He was feeling was to PRAY. And this is where my post about anxiety perfectly segues into our sermon at church yesterday about prayer …

Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This week we looked at the second part of Chapter 3. Here are my takeaways:

• Prayer is personal. You are in the presence of the Almighty. Surrender to Him. God wants to do as much in you as you want Him to do for you.
• Prayer is relational. You have a relationship with Christ. It is a Father/child relationship, a familial relationship and a friend relationship.
• Prayer is asking and expecting. James 4:2 says, “You do not have because you do not ask God.” God answers all prayers. The answer may be 1) yes, 2) no, 3) yes, but later or 4) something different, something better than you could’ve even imagined. The more consistently we pray and talk with God, the more in line our requests will be with God’s will and the more “yes” responses we will receive.
• Prayer is yearning. Ephesians 3:17-19 says, “… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” When we are saved, the Holy Spirit moves into our hearts and resides in us. We are the dwelling place of God and He goes to work in us. Our identity is found in our roots and in the love of Christ. We grow our roots through prayer and we need strong roots so that when the wind blows, we don’t fall over; when circumstances in our lives are difficult and hard to handle, we are able to endure.
• Prayer is revealing. Prayer allows God to reveal His glory in our lives. He will shine His light of truth and authenticity on us. Our sinful nature causes us to retreat and we naturally want to cover our sins, but He knows us and loves us anyway. He knows our weaknesses, our fears and our insecurities. You can’t hide anything from God, but if we only pray every now and then, we aren’t exposed to the light enough to stop acting on your sinful nature.

So in summary, we need to be able to answer the question, “Who am I?” And the best way to find the answer to this question is in the presence of God through prayer. Ask Him to grow you in the midst of whatever current struggles you have and take all of your fears and anxieties to Him and let Him wrap you up in His cocoon of peace.

Whew. If you made it all the way through that, bless you. Anyone else out there struggle with anxiety or identify with the characteristics of introverts in that article?

We have had a very rainy day down here in lower AL, which of course meant lots of soggy miles!

I was supposed to do my long run today, so I made plans to meet Rebecca and Lizzie for 12 miles this morning and then I was going to finish the remaining 6 miles by myself (spoiler alert … that didn’t happen). I woke up to sounds of thunder, but after a look at the radar and a brief discussion, we decided that the rain wasn’t going to be bad until around 8:30 and that we should be about done by that point anyway. Well, let me just tell you, the weather app lied.

It was already sprinkling when we met, but we had all gotten up and driven over to run, so we decided to go anyway. It was just the three of us girls and two other guys that showed up (apparently the majority of the usual crowd didn’t want to go in the rain … odd). By the time we finished our first mile, we were running in what seemed to be hurricane-like torrential downpours. We had the opportunity to bail on the usual route and make it 4 miles, but we decided to stick it out a little bit further, because there was another chance to cut it short later that would make it 8 miles. The logic here was that Rebecca wanted to run for at least an hour, so that she would be running longer than it takes her to drive round-trip to the run. Made perfect sense.

By the time we got to the turn to make it 8 miles, we decided that we were out here anyway and we were completely drenched already, so why stop now? Oh and just as a side note, the guys had all bailed at this point and so we were feeling very hard-core 🙂

We came to our water stop on the golf course at mile 5.5 and we stopped for a little bit to get water, go to the bathroom, etc. and this is where it got interesting. Lightning started popping all around us and we were playing the game where you count the time between the lightning and the thunder to see how close it is to you. It was *very* close. We couldn’t help but laugh when the lightning sirens on the golf course started blaring and we noticed that the little shelter we were standing under had a sign that literally said, “this structure does NOT provide protection against lightning.” We weren’t really sure what our best option was going to be at this point, so we just decided to wait it out for a few minutes in our unsafe shelter. Thankfully the weather cleared up a good bit and the lightning stopped completely and we were able to finish our route without any more issues.

We ran back into town looking like wet rats and at this point, the rain had almost stopped completely and the sun was coming out, so were just looking like crazy folks. I couldn’t muster up the drive to finish out my run by myself. I need my friends to run. And the coffee. I really didn’t want to miss our weekly coffee loft gathering because I was out doing silly things like running more miles. Plus, I knew Daniel didn’t run yet. I could go with him later. The coffee and conversation were totally worth it. Win, win.

Daniel and I headed to church and the grocery store when I got home. Our sermon was on prayer this week and it was so good! I’m going to do my recap post tomorrow. I have been wanting to do a post about anxiety and I think that a post about anxiety and prayer will make a great combination.

Apparently I was in the mood for coconut today. I came away from the store with all things coconut. Coconut water, coconut popsicles, coconut yogurt, coconut milk ice cream and dark chocolate coconut granola. Oh my.

After a nice long nap, Daniel was ready to get his run in, so I decided to go 6 miles with him so that I could meet my long-run mileage for the day. Not the ideal way to get it in, but conditions were less than ideal today and it is what it is. Of course, when we headed out this evening it was raining again! But we had a great time running in the rain and talking. Something about running in the rain is very freeing and is just pure, old-fashioned fun (if you’re into that sort of thing, obviously).

In the spirit of a rainy day, I wanted to share some tips for running in the rain:

• Wear a hat. A hat with a brim is your best friend during a rainy run. It will keep the rain off your face, so you can see, even in a downpour.
• Girls, braid your pony-tail if it is long enough. I forgot this little tip today and the result wasn’t pretty. Can we say rats nest?
• Wear old shoes.
• Invest in a shoe dryer. This isn’t really a rain-specific tip either. As hot and humid as it is here, we use the shoe dryer on the regular. Daniel says that the shoe dryer is the best running accessory after his Garmin watch, so that’s pretty high up there. If not, you can stuff your shoes with crumpled balls of newspaper. This helps the shoes keep their shape, and the paper draws moisture away from the shoes. Here is our dryer.
• Just get out there and run! The hardest part of running in the rain is often just getting started. Once you begin running and warm up, you may find that you actually enjoy it. And it’s good preparation in case you ever have to run a race in the rain. Plus when else is it going to be 70 degrees in July?!

Anyone else get some gloriously sogyy miles in today? Any more rainy running tips to share?

Hello and happy 4th of July!

Today started out with an early long run at the pier. The humidity was out of control, so what was going to be the long run for the week, turned into 10 miles with a couple miles of walking back to the car. I did a tempo run yesterday, so I shouldn’t have even attempted a long run today anyway and my body was definitely telling me that it needed another day of rest in between. I am working on listening to those signals … so I cut it short and shall try again tomorrow.

We hit Coffee Loft afterwards for some much-needed coffee and a smoothie. Then we came home and hung out by the water for a while. Dad has been hard at work expanding our deck and we are already enjoying the extra space.

Now we just need to work on the pier itself (ours is the one on the right side of the picture).

Daniel hung out in his hammock for a bit while I got some sun on the deck 🙂

Mom and dad came over by boat to pick us up.

Then we headed over to Fly Creek to my uncle’s house for a bit. The water felt amazing! Not too hot and not too cold.

Everyone was ready for a little bit of rest this afternoon. I’m pretty sure I got at least a 3 hour nap in. Pure perfection. Then we grilled out and cooked up another Blue Apron dinner. We had cheeseburgers with feta-watermelon salad and pickled watermelon rind. It was delicious and a very festive meal for the fourth!

We also grilled up some chicken tenders to have later in the week.

Now we are just relaxing at home, trying to calm our crazy pup who is terrified of fireworks! Poor little guy can’t stand them and is currently in full-blown anxiety mode hiding under our bed.

I hope everyone had a fun, safe holiday! See ya later!

Hey y’all! Happy fourth of July weekend. I hope everyone has a little bit of a break and has something fun planned for the weekend. We are going to be running, grilling out and playing on the water. Fun, fun!

Since today is a holiday for most people, we had a nice little group run this morning. I say that, but in actuality it was really just a bunch of Daniel’s buddies that showed up to run. Thankfully, one other girl came so I had a friend and didn’t have to get sucked into the guys’ fast pace. I had a little tempo run today, but it was just the last two miles of my run, so I didn’t want to run fast the whole time, just at the very end! We all did 10 miles. I did 8 and then picked up the pace for the last two to 6:45 and 6:37. I felt pretty good and was under my goal pace, so I’m happy with how that went.

Daniel and I came home and did our abs. I do this pretty regularly and Daniel has just decided that he wants to do them consistently too, so he is actually keeping me more accountable to do them every day now, which works.

After our workout, Daniel had some studying to do so I decided to cook. This one was miso roasted chicken with spring peas and jasmine rice. We got our next Blue Apron box Wednesday and I still hadn’t made the last meal from last week, so I was a tad behind schedule. I didn’t make anything last weekend because I spent a lot of time over in Mobile at the tennis courts and I was definitely not feeling the cooking when I got home each night. Thankfully, the ingredients were all still fresh and it turned out really good. We were able to eat it for lunch today.

Brookser got a bath today and got his hairs cut. He is all ready to celebrate the fourth now. Doesn’t he look so cute?

It’s been a pretty low-key day otherwise. Daniel has been busy studying and I got in a nice long “mini-sleep” this afternoon. Now we are just playing with our new phones (they came in today!) and watching Shark Tank. It’s a perfectly low-key evening and a great start to the holiday weekend!

Gotta run!