Some Running, a Recipe & a lot of Randomness

Hey friends!

Today I am coming at you with a training summary, a recipe, and as always, some random thoughts. This week’s training has been pretty similar to last week, which is nice. I think consistency is an essential element for any training schedule (meaning that you settle into a routine as far as what days you do what types of runs, not meaning that you run the same workouts every week). I will have to adjust my schedule in the next few weeks as I settle into a new routine at work, but hopefully that won’t be too much of an adjustment for me.

Monday

I have been trying to take it easy on Mondays, so this week started off with 6 miles at 8:34 pace. Monday evening I went to yoga, and got in some good core work and stretching.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning I did my hill repeat workout again. I did the same route as last week and by doing that, I am able to pretty easily track my progress. I was a little bit stronger this week, so I am encouraged that I am moving in the right direction.

Tuesday evening was the standard group run at Running Wild, followed by a fun little birthday celebration for Lizzie!

Wednesday

Wednesday morning I headed over to run with Rebecca. We ended up with 11 miles at 8:08 pace and may or may not have planned our route around the best (and by best, I mean coldest) water fountain in the area. Yeah, we definitely did and we definitely stopped at it more than once. No shame.

Thursday

Thursday morning was another easy run and Thursday evening was the final night for the Robertsdale High School Summer Track Series that Rebecca put on to raise money for her XC team. The events this week were the 400, the distance medley relay (the teams are made up of four runners and the distances are 1200, 400, 800 and 1600), and the grand finale was the milk mile. The track meet was my speed workout for the week. I ran the 400 and did the 1200 leg for my relay team. It was fun to “race” on the track, as that is not really something that we typically do.

I did not, however, race the milk mile. For those of you who haven’t heard of this, you drink 8 oz. of milk, run one lap around the track, drink 8 oz. of milk, run one lap, etc. etc. until you get to a mile. There is a penalty lap for “spewing.” Someone had to film it, right? So for your viewing pleasure …

[wpvideo MywnGOKp]

Friday

Today was an easy 8 miles at 8:23 pace with Daniel.

That catches us up on the training front. Tomorrow morning is my training group’s first double-digit run of their training cycle. We will be hitting the streets early tomorrow for 10 miles! Sunday morning I have a 20 miler planned. I’ve done 18 and 19, so I know I am ready for 20, but something about that one extra mile seems a bit daunting. I will let you know how it goes!

And now for my latest recipe creation … Balanced Bites. I’ve seen these called both energy bites and protein balls, but I like the term balanced bites better. This is one of those things that you can definitely experiment with and just combine whatever ingredients sound good to you. I am very pleased with how mine turned out. The real test though, of course, is what Daniel thought of them. On his food critiquing scale (1 being olives and 10 being pizza), he says they are a solid 7. He said they were better than he thought, but if he had the chance to choose something unhealthier he definitely would. Ha.

Here is the recipe I came up with.

As I wrap up my last official day “off work” this summer, I have been reflecting back on my time off and what I have learned, etc.

The Good

• I think that one of the best things that came from my break is definitely the blog and me being more open to sharing my story. I am still really enjoying writing and I feel like I have posts constantly swarming around in my head (for instance, I want to write about perfectionism, control, balance, safety for runners, etc.), although it does take a decent amount of time to actually put the thoughts down to “paper.” Even if they don’t ever make it to the blog, I am still thinking more deeply and introspectively than I was before. I definitely want to continue working on the blog part-time and we’ll see where that goes.
• Another good thing was just the fact that I stood up for myself and took the time off that I needed. I am not one for a lot of down-time, but I definitely felt like it was something that I needed this summer and I stuck up for myself and put my family and my health in front of my career for the first time in too long and it felt amazing!
• I have enjoyed having more time to read and learn new things, which is something that I want to continue.
• Having more free time allowed me the chance to take on new opportunities, such as “coaching” the marathon training group at RW.

The Not-as-Good

• I thrive on structure and routine. I know this about myself, but I wasn’t really prepared going in that I would feel “off” without having set things to do each day.
• I still struggle to find balance in many areas. While I know I made a lot of healthy changes this summer (cooking more), I feel in some cases that I sacrificed other healthy habits for the new ones.

And just because. Well, just because. This picture of Brooks and his new toy with teeth. I die. We love our little buddy so much!

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now. We have a fun canoeing trip planned with my new firm tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that. Gotta run!