Year: 2015

Hey friends! I am a little late with my weekly recap of the sermon this week, because I missed church Sunday. Thankfully, our church has an awesome media team and you can watch online if you miss a week. ICYMI: Here are some of my takeways from weeks 1, 2 and 3.

This week we looked at the first part of Chapter 3 and here are my takeaways:

• Paul was in prison as he was writing. He was suffering. He doesn’t qualify it, by saying he has a lack of faith that he hasn’t overcome, but rather simply says I am suffering and there is a reason. We are all suffering with some sort of affliction. It is part of living life in a fallen world. There was a purpose for Paul to be in prison and there is a purpose for our lives and for any pain and suffering that we are enduring.
• We all deal with affliction that comes from different places. When you go through stuff (which we all will), you need to ask yourself, “where is this coming from” and “what does God want to do with it.” Instead of asking “why” realize that it is a reality and focus on how God is going to use it.
• There are multiple types of afflictions: adamic (suffering because of living in a fallen world; our bodies aren’t perfect and we all have aches and pains), victim (suffering because of what someone else did; you didn’t choose it or do anything to deserve it, but you suffer because of it), punitive (suffering that is punishment for non-believers), collective (suffering because you are part of a group that is under affliction), providential (suffering that God allows for your good; it isn’t pleasant, but it is to mature and grow your faith), consequential (suffering because you made a mistake and now you are paying for it; don’t blame God if you make a bad decision, repent and ask Him to restore you), testimonial (suffering you endure in your life so that God has a platform to use to shine His light and His glory throughout your life, your community and the world), disciplinary (suffering that isn’t punitive (our sins were paid for on the cross) or retributive, but that is restorative and corrective), preventative (suffering that allows you to not fall into deeper hurt, sickness or suffering), demonic (never be afraid of the enemy, but always be aware of him and be vigilant), empathetic (suffering because someone you love is suffering) and mysterious (sometimes we don’t know why we are suffering; we don’t know what God is doing, but we do know that He has promised that in all things, He will use it for our good and for His glory).
• God has given us all general and specific instructions. As Christians, there are general things that we all should do. We should pray, be involved in our local churches and be generous with our time and resources. We should read, study and commit ourselves to the word of God.
• He will also call us to do specific things (like pastor or serve on a mission trip, etc.). Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you don’t know what God is calling you to do, so you will just do nothing in the meantime. Work on the general things in the meantime. We have to be faithful in the general instructions so that God can reveal His specific instructions to us through the Holy Spirit.
• Spiritual understanding must always precede practical application. If we understand who Jesus is and what He has done for us, that understanding will fuel us to live out our calling.
• Christians should be thinkers. Think on God. Think about who He is and how great He is. Think about the cross and soak it in. It will change how you live in a practical way. Love the Lord with your mind and commit yourself to studying His word.
• Experiencing and understanding God’s grace leads to authentic humility. Paul says that he is the least of the saints. If you see arrogance in a Christian, you see someone who doesn’t truly understand grace or someone who has forgotten the cross and what Jesus did for them.
• All of our pain and suffering matters. In Christ we have access to Jesus and we should have a humble confidence in Him. Yes, we suffer, but we have access to the Father because we are His children. There is a purpose for our pain, there is a purpose for our lives and we will not lose heart. Pray that God would use us in our suffering, that He would teach us, grow us and use our testimonies. Let God use you as a light in the darkness.

I hope you were able to take something away from this sermon, I know I sure did. What suffering and affliction has God used in your life? Be thankful for it and ask Him to use every bit of it for His glory!

Hello!

Today’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 5 X 1 mile (with 400 recoveries), and a 2 mile cool down. My goal range for the mile repeats was 6:10 to 6:20 pace. Daniel and I got up early and headed over to the track to meet Rebecca. Rebecca and I showed up wearing pretty much the exact same outfit. There for a while, people were always getting us confused so we have been known to show up to a race wearing the same outfit before just to throw everyone off. But today was definitely not planned. Great minds think alike 🙂

On to the workout … I know I have mentioned before that track workouts can be a bit of a mental struggle, but today was much better! I think that just having Rebecca and Daniel there made a huge difference. None of us were doing the same workout (Rebecca did a ton of 400s, Daniel did 800s and I did mile repeats), but we were all still there sharing the “experience” together. Misery loves company, right?

The other thing that I did differently today was listen to my iPod. I usually do this in races, as it helps me to mentally zone out and just enjoy the race, so it makes perfect sense that it would help me in a workout as well. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that until now! I typically try to reserve iPod use for “special occasions,” like a race, so that I don’t get too dependent on having it, but mile repeats definitely deserved something special.

My splits were 6:15, 6:10, 6:09, 6:13 and 5:58. I was very pleased with how that workout went!

I came home and made myself a yummy smoothie. I just found these at the grocery store last week and they say “new” so I think I am onto something cutting edge here. For anyone else who is lazy in food preparation (I mean, yes I am working on it, but you didn’t really think I was going to “prepare” more than one meal a day, right?) … these things are awesome! They are basically tiny little pieces of all natural fruits and veggies mixed with some greek yogurt that you just add juice to and shake up. It creates a smoothie with a really good consistency and none of the mess.  I’ve been adding protein powder and water, since I am doing them after a run or workout, and that seems to work just as well. They definitely get the Sam stamp of approval for a healthy treat!

In other exciting news, we booked our flights to New York for the marathon in November. I am registered for the race, the rooms are booked and paid for and now the flights are booked and paid for .. things are getting real! There are several runners from our area heading up for the race, so it will be really nice to have a good group to train with and travel with. I haven’t ever been to New York before, so I am really excited about the trip in general. We should have a few extra days to take in some of the sights. I hope that we get to go ice skating in Central Park (I guess we should probably wait until after the race for that though)!

Yesterday evening, Daniel and I met at the Verizon store after work to get our phones upgraded. Mine took a little swim last weekend and is still holding in there, but thankfully we were due for an upgrade anyway. We have both been rocking the iPhone 4 for a while now, so it is time to step it up, although I must say I have grown quite fond of the nice, petite size of the 4. I am not super excited about the size of the 6, but at least I don’t have to get the 6+! Daniel is switching it up completely and going with a Samsung. Craziness.

I also did a little Blue Apron cooking yesterday. We had lamb and risotto-style ditalini pasta with spring onions and green beans for dinner. Like all of the other meals thus far, it did not disappoint!

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ve got a busy day of reading planned and a baby shower to go to later this evening. It’s a rough life, I know. But hey, I am soaking up every minute of my free time until it is back to the “real world” next month. Well, back to the part-time real world at least 😉

Gotta run!

Whew, what a weekend!

I played three matches (12:30 Friday, 12:30 Saturday and 3:00 Sunday) and now I am a tad sunburnt, my hands and feet are blistered up and I am just worn out in general. My team ended up in third place, but we were actually tied with the second place team and it came down to individual sets won and they had more. If we had gotten second, we would have gotten a wildcard entry to the sectional tournament next month. So close!

My first match Friday was my longest match of the weekend I think. Our first game alone lasted almost thirty minutes. We were back and forth the entire first set and I ended up losing the first set in a tiebreaker. My spirit was crushed and I didn’t win another game after that set. I got to watch my opponent from that match play again yesterday, and I am actually very proud that I was able to get 6 games off of her. She was good!

I didn’t play Saturday morning, so I headed down to Running Wild for our usual Saturday morning run. We had a good turnout and everyone did between 8 and 12 miles. The half and full marathon training groups start in just a few weeks and I am getting excited about that!

Saturday afternoon I headed back out on the courts hoping that things would go a little better. I got 6 games this time as well, but lost again. I was up 4-2 in the second set and thought that I was going to maybe pull that one out, but she rallied and came back strong.

The weather started going downhill Saturday afternoon and one of our doubles courts didn’t get to finish until about 7:30 Saturday evening. As a team, we won both of our matches on Saturday and we knew we were in the running for the wildcard at this point. Unfortunately, Sunday morning brought more rain and more rain delays. Our 8 am match didn’t go on until around 11:30 and we ended up losing all five courts.

We had one final match Sunday afternoon at 3. Everyone was feeling pretty beat up at this point, but we managed to put together a lineup and head back out there. I lost my match this time as well, but as a team we somehow came away with the win. My hands and feet were extremely blistered by this point, so I kind of changed my strategy and went for more winners that I would’ve typically gone for. Consistency is usually my key, which means that I end up playing some long matches, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to do that this time. I don’t remember ever getting blisters on my hands, but for whatever reason, I definitely did this year.

I had such a #bloggerfail this weekend. I got zero pictures of my team or of me playing and so I took a picture of my blisters on the way home to share with you. I will spare you the feet blisters though. Lucky, lucky readers you are 🙂

Sunday evening when I got home, Daniel and I teamed up to make another Blue Apron meal. Y’all, let me tell you … that is the secret to actually making the meals in the allotted cooking time that is given on the recipe. You just need some extra hands.

We made seared salmon with red quinoa and pea shoot salad. Salmon and quinoa are probably two of my favorite foods anyway, so I thought this one was fabulous!

And we had an amazing sunset to close out the weekend (taken on Daniel’s phone, no effects added)!

I had fun playing tennis these last few weeks and I really do enjoy the competition of the state tournament, especially at the 4.5 level. A lot of the players are former collegiate players and so you get to play and watch some really good tennis! But, running is still my main passion at the moment, so it will be back to the regularly scheduled programming around here for a while. I have a tempo run, a mile repeat workout and an 18 mile long run on the schedule this week! I love it.

Gotta run!

Hey guys!

I just got back from my final practice match for the USTA state tennis tournament, which starts tomorrow. Last year was my first year playing singles at state and it went pretty well. I only lost to one lady (two times) and I won my other two matches, so overall I was pleased. I’m really excited to play again this year. It seems like I have prepared a little bit more this year, so hopefully that will pay off some. My first match is tomorrow at 12:30. It’s gonna be super hot! There is no shade on the courts whatsoever, which means that the heat index out there is unreal. I’ve got all my supplies ready to go though, don’t worry.

They include lots of things to help me grip the racket once my hands get sweaty (that was my main problem last year), a cooler to put all my drinks in, a cooling towel to wet and wrap around my neck and shoulders between games, a new YETI stainless steel tumbler that I am super excited about (it is supposed to keep ice twice as long as plastic tumblers and it works just as well for hot beverages), and lots of good nutrition and hydration.

While I was at the courts this morning, I noticed a new sign hanging and thought it was pretty interesting. Tennis is bringing lots of people and having a huge economic impact in Mobile. Pretty cool! While I was standing there the guy that did all the research for the sign actually walked up and so we chatted about it for a few minutes. He seemed to be really appreciative that someone was interested in his work. I told him I’d put it up on my blog 🙂

Let’s see, so what else has been going on? Well, my mom and I had a nice long walk yesterday morning. We walked six miles. While I wouldn’t necessarily classify six miles as a long way (to run), it definitely felt like a long walk. We have always enjoyed walking and talking, it’s kind of our thing.

I think that walking is a wonderful way to add in some cross training, so to speak, to get a break from the repetitive nature of running. Running is obviously a high impact exercise, which can cause injury to the hip, knee and ankle joints. Walking is a low impact activity and is potentially less damaging to the joints. Walking also burns more fat for fuel than running because while exercising at a lower intensity, fat is being used as fuel. As you increase your exercise intensity from walking into a run, more carbohydrates from your body are used to fuel the exercise. I always end up being pretty sore after the day after a long walk, and I am hardly ever sore after running, so I know walking is working out some different muscle groups, which is another plus.

When we got back from our walk, I was seriously craving some granola, which is very odd. I can’t even remember the last time I had that, but alas I went in search of some granola and ended up at Fresh Market. I have a love hate relationship with that place. I love all of the variety that they have in the store, it’s definitely different brands than your typical grocery store, and their fresh produce and meats are amazing, but the prices are high and I always end up leaving with more than I go in there for (so basically it’s like Target). I went in for granola and left with granola, a bunch of yogurt and two things of trail mix. Le sigh (that is a french sigh in case you weren’t following).

Brooks was feeling somewhat left out and wanted to help me display my granola, which resulted in that you can’t even actually see the granola … but it is Little Red Wagon cranberry orange granola and it is really good. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice until I got home that it says on the back “enjoy by 06/14/15,” so ironically not all that fresh. I was really excited to see that they had a variety of noosa yogurt flavors. Noosa is a really thick, Australian-style yogurt. It is kind of similar to Greek yogurt in that it is thick and has a good bit of protein in it, but it is creamier in my opinion. One of Daniel’s co-workers introduced us to it and we hadn’t been able to find it at any of the local grocery stores. They have it at Target, but only in one flavor, strawberry rhubarb. This was the first time I had seen it anywhere else, so naturally I had to buy one of each flavor. It only makes sense.

Daniel and I went for an easy 5 mile run when he got home from work.

And later I whipped up our third Blue Apron dinner, which was seared steaks and mashed potatoes with sautéed radishes and snap peas. I know I mentioned that the last recipe felt like a lot more work than the first one, but clearly I hadn’t gotten to this one yet … one of the steps was to trim off the ends of the snap peas and pull off the strings that run the length of each pod. I mean really. So basically they just asked me to perform surgery on each one of the peas. Another step had you peel the rind of the lemon and mince to get two teaspoons of zest. I think if I had a peeler or a zester, this step wouldn’t have been that bad, but I am working with a plain, old-fashioned knife so this felt like surgical procedure number two.

All kidding aside, it turned out really well.

If the weather holds up, I’m heading over the Robertsdale later for the Robertsdale Summer Track Series that Rebecca is putting on to raise money for her XC team. Tonight’s events are the 400, 3200 and 4 X 800 relay. Typically if I do a 400 or an 800 on the track it is part of a much longer workout, so I am curious to see what times I will be able to run in this type of setting, while still saving something for the other events. Should be interesting!

Other than that, I’ll just be tennis-ing it up for the next few days. Gotta run!

Hey y’all! Today I want to share a little bit of information about a few supplements that are important for distance runners (and athletes in general). I just recently learned some of this information, so I want to pass it along in case anyone else needs to hear it as well.

Running long distances can place an extra demand on various minerals and vitamins in our diet, so we need to make sure we are getting in enough calcium and iron, and taking supplements, if needed, to make sure we maintain the proper levels. I try to make it a habit to take these supplements daily.

Calcium

This may be the most important nutrient for an athlete. The stress of running can increase the demand for calcium in the body. Calcium is essential for strong bones and many people do not get enough of it in their regular diet. All athletes should make sure they get 1,200 to 1,500 mg of calcium daily from food or supplements. Insufficient calcium intake can lead to stress fractures, growth problems, osteoporosis and other skeletal problems.

I have been taking a calcium supplement for a while now. I have been taking 1,000 mg per day. However, what I didn’t realize was that your body can only absorb up to 500 mg of calcium at a time, so you have to spread it out if you are taking more than 500 mg. Here are the ones I take (and yes, they are gummies and yes, they are delicious).

The great thing about these is that they are also high in Vitamin D, which is important in order for your body to be able to absorb calcium. Many distance runners develop stress fractures that they are later able to trace back to vitamin D deficiencies, which kept their bodies from fully absorbing the calcium they took in.

Iron

Athletes who train for six or more hours per week often have iron-deficiency anemia and should be checked yearly for the condition. Athletes use iron stores more quickly than non-athletes and many distance runners, especially women and those who log high mileage, find they are low in iron. Iron is important for the production of red blood cells which is a key component in distance running. The recommended daily amount of iron ranges from 10 to 15 mg per day, which is an amount that can be easily acquired from food. In the absence of anemia, athletes shouldn’t take any supplemental iron because it raises the risk of heart disease and colon cancer.

When I started back to marathon-specific training last winter, I had my iron levels checked. My iron was 15.8 and while the “normal” range listed on the test results is 13 – 400, I needed to be much higher than where I was, so I started taking an iron supplement. I take two of these per day and I take it with Vitamin C, as Vitamin C helps the absorption of iron.

However, what I didn’t know until recently was that calcium blocks the absorption of iron, so you can’t take your calcium supplement at the same time as you take your iron. Also, don’t take the iron supplement on an empty stomach! It doesn’t sit well. So, basically what I do now is 500 mg of calcium in the morning with breakfast, 130 mg of iron and 500 mg of Vitamin C mid-day with lunch, and 500 mg of calcium in the evening with dinner.

Here are some handy charts that I found, showing what foods are high in different vitamins and minerals:

Last night, I made our second Blue Apron meal and it seemed to be more “work” that the first one, but it was really good and well worth the extra effort. This one was hoison-glazed chicken meatballs with zucchini and brown rice. I had never heard of hoison sauce before, but it is a Chinese staple used as a meat glaze and usually includes soy, red chillies and garlic. Vinegar and sugar are also commonly added, giving it a sweet and salty taste.

Here are the fresh ingredients: zucchini, scallions, garlic and ginger.

And here is the finished product!

I wasn’t a big fan of actually forming the meatballs, something about touching raw meat is extremely unappealing to me, and of course and soon as I got the nerve up to dig my hands in, I got an important call from work that I had to take! Our signal is horrible so I had to scramble out to the front porch to answer the call … which meant that I talked on the phone for over thirty minutes with the phone between my ear and shoulder and raw food all over my hands. Lovely.

I was definitely over it by the time I finished cooking this one. But then when Daniel got home and we finally ate it, it was absolutely wonderful and he LOVED it and that made it all worth it!

Cooking, I still don’t love you, but I’m not giving up on you yet.

That’s it for now. Gotta run!

Happy Father’s Day!

Since it was father’s day and we were heading to my grandmother’s for lunch, we skipped our Sunday morning long run and caught an earlier than usual church service. This week was the third week of our study on Ephesians. We looked at the second half of chapter 2 today. Here are a few of my takeaways from the sermon:

• Finding our identity in Christ is crucial. If not, we will elevate distinguishing characteristics about ourselves to the state of an identity. I don’t know about y’all, but this one hit home for me. It is so easy to think of our identities in worldly terms, “I am a wife, a runner, an accountant, etc.” and forget that our true identity is found only in Jesus.
• Ephesians 2:13 says “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” In the Old Testament, the act of making sacrifices brought you nearer to God, but in the New Testament, one sacrifice brings you completely to God.
• When Jesus died on the cross for us, the ultimate sacrifice was made, our debts were paid and our atonement was sealed, forever signifying that there was no more division between God and man. Not only was there no more division between God and man, but not longer any division among men. This is the unity of the body of Christ. When you are in Christ, you are not separated from other men by “distinguishing characteristics,” not by social status, culture, skin color, etc., but rather the color of red, signifying the blood of Christ, is what binds us all together.
• Jesus is our access to the Father. An access is the position of someone who brings something to someone else, similar to a representative. John 14:6 says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” We have total access to the Father in Christ. Total access. Complete, not partial. Forever, not temporary.
• 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” We are called to be Jesus to those who don’t know Him.

We all have scars, wounds and brokenness that we need God to heal. Once we are healed, we use our story to bring others to Christ. We should embrace our brokenness and go find others that are broken. Let your story be a story of reconciliation, redemption, hope, love and grace.

After church, we headed down to my grandmother’s for lunch. Family selfie headed to lunch 🙂

It was really nice to hang out with the family for a few hours. After lunch, we hit the water again. First up on the agenda was a little father’s day project I had been scheming in my ‘lil brain for a while. I always love seeing those then and now pictures that are retaken years later. For some reason they all crack. me. up.

I had the perfect picture in mind for me and my dad. I love how it turned out! The top picture was taken in 1987 and the bottom picture was today. And yes, I have on swimmies and yes, I did a major belly buster.

After that we loaded up the dog and the paddleboards and headed up Fly Creek. The creek was beautiful today.

I am so thankful that I was able to spend the day with my dad. He is an amazing dad and I am very blessed to be his daughter. He truly lives His life like Jesus and is a wonderful witness to everyone that he meets. He is selfless and fun-loving. We have had a lot of fun over the years. He taught me to do so many things and taught me to never be scared to try anything. That is such an important life lesson to learn and truly put into practice.

Our own experiences can lead us to believe that the world is somewhat of a danger zone and that it would be best to just live a simple, safe, “protected” life. Our instincts tell us that there is safety in a life that is lived without taking chances or stepping outside of our comfort zone. That message, reinforced through experiences, can trigger changes to our anatomy and brain chemistry that is called encoded memory. This coding, can raise our baseline sensitivity so that it takes progressively less and less stress to trigger feelings of anxiety. Eventually you are in a constant state of high alert. I can tell you first-hand that this is a miserable place to live. I have really been thinking about this a lot lately and I am doing my best to live life to the fullest, knowing who I am and whose I am.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! See ya later 🙂

So, let’s catch up.

Monday evening’s Yoga for Runners went really well! I was much more comfortable this time and just knowing what to expect helped so much. We worked on stretching and elongating the muscles that are typically over used in running and strengthening the muscles that are under used. Definitely a good reminder not to give up on something just because you don’t necessarily like it the first time you try it.

Tuesday’s workout was a 2 mile warm up, 10 X 600M (with a 1:30 recovery), and a 2 mile cool down. My goal range for the 600s was 6:00 – 6:05 pace, so 2:15 to 2:17 per repeat. I modified the workout a little and actually did a 2 mile warm up, 6 X 600M, 4 X 400M, and a 1 mile cool down.

Track workouts can be a bit of a mental struggle for me. Even today, I stayed within the pace range I was supposed to for the whole workout (which tells me that physically I was doing just fine), but I still ended up cutting the workout short. After the first two or three, I tried to tell myself that I would stop at five. Half a workout is better than no workout, right? After I did the fourth one, I tried to convince myself that I could do eight. Somewhere in there I thought maybe I could just do some 400M and 200M repeats to equal 600M, but what I ultimately settled on was that I would still do 10 total repeats, but I would shorten the last four. Whew. I was mentally (and physically) exhausted after all of that run around (get it?)!

I think we are all guilty of focusing so much on all of the physical aspects of running that we can easily forget that a big part of running is mental. Overall, I am pleased with what I was able to do, but I still have been trying to figure out why it is that I “get in my head” so much when I am on the track. Give me a long run, a treadmill workout or even a race for that matter and I am good to go, but make me run around the oval hamster wheel and I am done. So even though I could have done this workout on the treadmill (and I think probably completed the entire workout), I decided to go to the track anyway and that in itself was a small victory.

I met up with a fellow blogger Tuesday morning and she gave me some wonderful tips on how to grow my blog and reach my target audience. Thank you Larisa!

During our “meeting” I tried a new to me drink at Starbucks and it was amazing. I got the orange mango smoothie and it was a very refreshing post-workout treat.

Tuesday evening was group run at Running Wild. They had reps from Topo and Soleus there and we got to test out some shoes and GPS watches. I wore these and this. It is always fun to try different gear out and I really liked both of these products.

This is somewhat off topic, but has anyone else tried a sugar kiss melon? We randomly decided to pick one up at the grocery store this week and it is really tasty. It basically seems like a really sweet small cantaloupe. We really like it, so I figured I would just pass that along.

I hope y’all had a good day! Gotta run!