Author: admin

Hey y’all!

This week was fairly uneventful (read: I took zero pictures on my phone). No pictures = uneventful week. It seems like it takes me a little bit of time to adjust back to reality after a weekend away. I am definitely not complaining. We had a great trip and I am thankful that we can get away for a weekend here and there.

I had a few good workouts this week, so that’s what we’ll talk about today. I’m pleased with the quality runs that I got in this week. Quality over quantity is my new thing and I’m enjoying it. I love pushing myself and getting a good workout in before work. I definitely have more endorphins on workout days!

Monday: 5 easy

Tuesday: 3 mi. WU, 4 mi. LT wave tempo, 1.6 mi. CD

The wave tempo is a continuous run of ~ 30 minutes alternating intensities every 2-5 minutes. The purpose of the workout is to improve lactate threshold (LT) and efficiency at dissipating lactate and to improve your ability to run a quick pace for extended periods of time.

I was only supposed to do a two mile warm up, but the route we were running had us running up a pretty big hill on mile 3, so I extended the warm up to avoid starting my workout up a hill. I think I just lost at least 2 hard-core points.

The workout called for a 4 mile tempo, alternating the pace every half mile between 6:35-6:40 and 6:05-6:10. My actual paces for each half mile segment were: 6:55, 6:28, 6:37, 6:16, 6:33, 6:16, 6:36, 6:17, so the mile splits were 6:40, 6:25, 6:24, 6:26. I wasn’t quite as quick as I was supposed to be on the faster parts. It can be difficult to hit specific paces while doing a workout in the dark. I checked my pace a few times throughout the workout, but otherwise I was just trying to run by feel.

Wednesday: 5 easy

Thursday: 2 mi. WU, 8 X 800 w/ 400 rec, 2 mi. CD

I typically like to have more than one day in between stress workouts and actually, I was supposed to do the workouts Monday and Thursday instead of Tuesday and Thursday. However, due to the above-referenced reality adjustment that hit me Monday morning, I knew the better option for me this week was going to be Tuesday and Thursday.

Turns out that the 8 X 800 workout was an even bigger reality check than work Monday morning! My goal pace range was 2:52-2:56 (spoiler alert: I didn’t hit that). It has been a hot minute since I last did 800s (just checked … it was all the way back in May). I knew going in that it was going to be a tough workout, but I also knew that all I could do was give it a shot.

I hit 3:02, 2:56, 2:57, 2:58, 3:00, 3:00, 3:04 and 3:12. Not really happy with those last two, but otherwise I’ll take it. I just kind of felt like I ran out of steam. Also, my workout buddy did 6 X 800 and I was trying to encourage her throughout the workout (saying, “you’re over half way there” and “only two to go,” etc.) and I totally psyched myself out. By the time she I was done I was SO READY to be done too. Haha. My mind felt betrayed by my legs when I still tried to do those last two repeats, but I think my mind got the last say.

Friday: 5 easy

Saturday: 14 miles @ 7:26 pace

I don’t know exactly what happened for the long run this week, but I felt SO GOOD! Most of my long runs are supposed to be done at “moderate pace” right now (7:20-7:40). I was a little bit nervous going into it (mainly because I only had one day to recover from the 800 workout) and I even debated skipping the LR altogether and/or running it at an easy pace.

Daniel encouraged me to come run with him and to at least try the moderate pace. We got to the group run about 20 minutes early (Daniel is one of “those” on time is late people). I don’t really like sitting around waiting for the run to start (Hi my name is Sam and I need to be busy … like always). Thankfully Jim got there 20 minutes early (to run two miles before the group started) and so I decided to go ahead and get two of my miles knocked out too.

Apparently we were both ready to G-O, because we averaged 7:20 for those first two miles. At that point I figured I might as well try to hold that pace and see if I could keep the entire run somewhere in the goal pace range. We met back with the group for the 6 am start. Most of the guys were doing 18 to 20, so I ran 8 more miles with them and then I did my own thing for the last 4 miles.

Daniel ended up with 18 miles at a 7:21 average, so that was a really solid run for him too. He’s still planning to run the marathon in December.  

Sunday: 7 easy

That’s it for the week. I’ve got a mile repeat workout next week and a 5K next weekend. The temperatures are supposed to be in the mid-60s! Fingers crossed.

Hello! We spent our anniversary weekend in Birmingham. 6 years is the candy/iron anniversary. You are probably supposed to choose one or the other, but we kind of went with both.

It just made sense to get candy for the drive. Road trip!

We worked on our Dave Ramsey homework on the way up. It was a thrilling car ride. Ha. It also just makes sense to work on Dave Ramsey homework and eat a payday. Am I right?

We stayed at the Ross Bridge. We got there around 7 p.m. Friday evening, just in time to catch the bagpipe man playing right outside of our balcony.

Saturday morning we met up with one of our Ragnar teammates, Elena, that lives in Birmingham. We did a long run with her training group. I was blown away by how many runners were out that morning. Hundreds! I guess I forget how much bigger Birmingham is than where we live, but it was just crazy to me. Crazy good! I loved seeing so many people out training.

According to my schedule, I needed 14 miles between 7:25 and 7:45 pace. I got exactly what I needed. The route was a little hilly (not as hilly as it could’ve been though … they took it easy on us) and the weather was a little iffy (very humid with some rain sprinkled in every now and then), but otherwise I felt great!

Daniel ran 16 miles and then we did the usual post-run coffee hangs. We met some really nice people. I felt oddly comforted by the fact that post-run coffee is a universal running ritual.

The rest of our Saturday was pretty typical, we just weren’t in our typical setting. We did a little bit of shopping, I took a nap and Daniel watched plenty of football. After the Alabama game, we wandered out to find some dinner. There was a restaurant less than half a mile from the hotel called The Front Porch, so we decided to walk over there to check it out.

It was a good choice! We aren’t fancy restaurant people and this was the right up our alley. We Daniel was able to watch football and we got a really good meal. Win-win.

In the spirit of eating more fish and iron-rich food (hey that goes along with the anniversary theme too!), I ordered the Power Salad with Ahi Tuna. It had a little bit of everything on it (kale, cabbage, red onion, edamame, grape tomatoes, blueberries, dried cranberries, cashews and sunflower seeds) and it was delicious!

We ordered key lime pie for dessert and were surprised to see it served in a mason jar. I think it was a bigger serving than if it had just been a slice. Mason jars are so trendy these days.

I got a really pretty picture of the hotel all lit up at night on our way back.

Sunday morning we went on a short run to explore the area around the hotel, since we hadn’t run there Saturday morning. We found some neat trails and hills. We found lots of hills!

We had a 10:30 tee time (that sounds so fancy). Neither one of us had played golf in years. Daniel played in middle school and I played every now and then growing up. I was hoping that we might get some beginners luck working in our favor. Golf can be a super frustrating sport (especially if you aren’t any good at it). We hit a few shots from the driving range before deciding that “this is as good as it’s gonna get” and heading out to tackle the actual course.

Speaking of the course, it was tough. Lots of hills, water and sand traps (basically a beginner/non-experienced golfer’s nightmare). When we rented the clubs, the guy in the pro shop made sure to let us know that we would need to buy an extra 12 pack of balls because we were definitely going to need them. Ha.

After our first drive, we made the executive decision to play best ball. There were big groups playing in front of and behind us and we really didn’t want to hold anyone up with our lack of skillz. I am so glad that we played this way! We would both hit a shot and then we would just use whichever shot was the best, pick up the other ball and go from there.

We actually made a pretty good team. We used 90% of my drives (I have one club that I can hit well and the rest of my game is no good) and 90% of Daniel’s approach shots and putts. Every now and then one of us would hit a good shot outside of our usual strength and so we’d use that one, but for the most part it was pretty predictable.

The course was beautiful! We actually scored fairly well (in my opinion). We shot 45 on a par 36. It’s not great, but it is certainly not horrible either. We actually returned the entire pack of extra balls because we didn’t use any of them. Hashtag winning.

We decided that playing best ball helped us to avoid the IRONY of splitting up on our iron anniversary trip. Not that it was a competition by any means, but when you put two highly competitive people in a competitive environment, things happen. We avoided those things!

Thanks for reading. I’m sure that wasn’t the most interesting post ever, but I know that one day (when I am old and gray and have probably lost my marbles), I’ll want to look back and see how we spent our time together. Anyone have a good anniversary story to share?

Hey guys!

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that I had some blood work done for InsideTracker (ICYMI: I got my blood drawn the Friday before Labor Day).

What is InsideTracker?

InsideTracker is a blood biomarker analysis service. I have read several reviews about InsideTracker and I have been wanting to try it for quite a while. There are several different plans to choose from, based on how in-depth you want to get with it.

They measure biomarkers for overall health and well-being and for athletic performance. You fill out a general profile and a specific lifestyle, nutrition and fitness profile. After your blood work is analyzed, you receive personalized recommendations based on your lifestyle and your needs. An athlete’s blood work results can be very different from the general population and InsideTracker helps athletes establish personal metrics for optimal health.

Just as an example: I had blood work done by my primary care physician a few years ago and my iron level was 15.8. A “normal” range for females can be anywhere from 15 to 150 ng/mL. My doctor told me that everything was perfectly fine, when in actuality the normal range for a female endurance athlete is between 60 and 150 ng/mL and I was pretty far under that. No bueno.

Your results that are labeled as at-risk, needs work or optimal based on the following categories. The biomarkers used to measure each category are in parenthesis.

• Bone & Muscle Health (Vitamin D)
• Cognition (Vitamin B12)
• Inflammation (White Blood Cells & High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein)
• Strength & Endurance (Creatine Kinase, Cortisol & Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin)
• Oxygen Transfer & Blood Function (Ferritin & Hemoglobin)
• Liver Function & Toxicity (Alanine Aminotransferase)

Side note: For accuracy sake, I just wrote out the complete names of the biomarkers that were tested straight from my results. I don’t want you to think I was some sort of medical genius or something. If you need confirmation about my lack of medical knowledge, please consult with my husband. He will fill you in (and the good news is that it will only take 2 seconds, because there isn’t much knowledge there to talk about). In fact, if you are reading this, it means that I already had him proofread the post to make sure I didn’t say something silly.

This knowledge (or lack thereof) is actually one of the reasons that I was really excited about trying InsideTracker. The presentation that they put together with your results explains why each biomarker is important for athletic performance (in an easily understandable fashion) and they give you clearly defined action steps for how to make improvements based on the goals that you want to focus on.

The results come back within 5 to 7 business days and I got them in 6. Right on time! I was pretty excited to see what they said. As per usual … #nerdalert.

What did my results show?

Let’s start with the good news! None of my biomarkers were categorized as at-risk. Yay (insert happy dance)!

I was so relieved to hear this. I consider myself to be a healthy person in general, but I still sometimes worry about the potential negative effects that endurance training can have on your body. The results were a welcome form of reassurance and confirmation that physically I am doing just fine.

Disclaimer: InsideTracker did not, however, test the amount of crazy in my head. It is possible that I am walking around with a full-blown case of crazy-head (it runs in my family). We’ll save that test and those results for another day though!

So even though I didn’t have any at-risk biomarkers, I did have 3 that were classified as needing work: Vitamin D, Iron & Liver Enzymes. After seeing the categories that need work, I was able to select two goals to work on. I chose 1) prevent injury/speed recovery and 2) boost energy (sayonara nap-time).

I’m going to go through each category that needs work below.

Vitamin D is an important nutrient that helps the body absorb calcium to maintain bone strength and health. Only a few foods naturally contain vitamin D. Our bodies produce vitamin D when our skin is exposed to the sun. Inadequate calcium and vitamin D increase the risk of low bone mineral density and stress fractures (um hello, biggest fear and thing we want to avoid at all costs).

My vitamin D level was 39 ng/mL and the optimal level is 40 to 48 ng/mL, so I am not very far away from the optimal range on this one. The recommendation is to begin supplementing with 2000IU of vitamin D3 daily and to eat fatty fish at least twice per week to increase levels.

Ferritin is a protein that stores iron, and therefore it is a good marker for the amount of iron in the body. Iron is required for the formation of the oxygen-carrying proteins hemoglobin and myoglobin, and for enzymes involved in energy production. Low iron is a common nutritional issue for anyone who regularly participates in intense exercise, such as running, and cycling. Regular, high-volume, strenuous training may impair iron absorption and transport and cause iron deficiency.

I already knew that low iron was fairly common among endurance athletes (and my iron has been low in the past), so I was already taking an iron supplement. I have been taking 130 mg of iron a day regularly for 6 months (if not longer). I was really surprised that even though I am taking iron supplements every day, my iron level was still low.

My iron level was 34 ng/mL and the optimal level is 60 to 150 ng/mL. The recommendation is to increase the intake of red meat to twice per week, to avoid drinking coffee with meals (I really only do this at breakfast, but still … bummer!) and to avoid eating legumes (beans, peas, peanuts, etc.) or whole grain cereals at the same time as iron-rich foods, because this impedes the iron absorption.

I knew that certain minerals (calcium, zinc, magnesium, copper, etc.) blocked the absorption of iron, but I didn’t know that legumes did. After learning this, I think that I am likely getting enough iron (mainly from my supplements), but I am just not absorbing it properly.

ALT is an enzyme primarily found in the liver that helps chemical reactions occur. It plays a role in changing stored glucose into usable energy. When there is liver damage or disease, then ALT enters the blood stream. Damage to your liver can result in fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, and weight loss. Your liver has some ability to regrow after injury and damage so it’s important to take action that will help your liver repair itself.

My ALT level was 20 U/L the optimal level is 10 to 16 U/L.  The recommendation is to consume regular or decaffeinated coffee (3 cups/day), take a probiotic supplement daily, and to reduce intake of soda, juice and other sweetened beverages.

Where do I go from here?

I plan to take the following action-steps (based on the recommendations above):

1. Add a vitamin D3 and probiotic supplement daily.
2. Add more peanut butter, spinach and black beans to my diet.
3. Eat fish and red meat twice per week.
4. Drink fewer sugar-sweetened beverages and try to not drink coffee with meals.

After a couple of months of incorporating these changes, I will have my blood work redone to check my progress. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Question: When was the last time you had blood work done? Did you learn anything interesting or helpful from it?

Hello! I hope you had a good Labor Day and are adjusting back to the swing of things today.

The blog lived up to its name this weekend, as we spent most of the long weekend playing on Mobile Bay and running!

Brooks and I spent some quality time on the paddle board. He is usually more interested in swimming than staying with me on the board, but he did good this weekend. I think the secret was 1) we played fetch for quite a while before we even went down to the bay to begin with, so he was already a little bit tired and 2) we didn’t take his water toy down with us, so he didn’t have to concern himself with retrieving anything.

We went about 2 miles Saturday morning. He jumped in 3 times (which means that I fell in 3 times), but that was a lot less than usual!

Brooks and I also went “surfing” behind the boat on the paddle board. This is so much fun and he *seems* to enjoy it too. He hasn’t told me otherwise.

Step 1: Get up using the ski rope.

Step 2: Catch the wave.

Step 3: Hold on for dear life!

Step 4: BYE mom!

We also rode out to get a better look at the shrimp boats. In case you haven’t noticed, we are a tad bit obsessed. There were lots of porpoise feeding around the boats, so that was cool to see too!

I bet those boats have some awesome stories to tell.

It seemed pretty fitting to have some boiled shrimp to celebrate the holiday.

In other news, rest week was quite a success! I was able to step back and get some clarity and a new focus on my training.

This week kicks off my new “shorter distance” (I realize that this is relative terminology) training cycle. It stated with a bang! My training schedule called for 12 X 400 with a goal range of 82 to 84 seconds per lap (5:28 to 5:36 pace). I was a little intimidated by those paces, but I told myself just to get out there and see how it felt. If I couldn’t hit it, I couldn’t hit it. No big deal.

Daniel ran several of the repeats with me, which definitely helped me (mentally and physically). He is a good pacer!

I stayed really close to the goal range. My splits were 83, 83, 83, 82, 83, 83, 85, 82, 84, 84, 84, 84. I was worn out at the end, but I’m pretty sure that means I did it right. Haha. I am pleased with the consistency and happy to have my first track workout of this new phase under my belt.

I’m running a 5K this weekend and I’ll definitely be remembering that workout during the last mile (or maybe just during the whole race)!

I hope you all have a great (short) week!

Happy Friday friends!

I have almost survived #restweek2016! I have run less than 20 miles this week (which is not much compared to what I have been doing the last few months). It has been a really nice week and I am feeling good!

I think the burnout that I was experiencing was 90% (or more) mental and 10% (or less) physical. I decided to go ahead and take it one step further (just in case my evaluation of the situation isn’t exactly accurate) and this morning I got some blood work done with InsideTracker.

InsideTracker is a blood biomarker analysis service. I have read several reviews about InsideTracker and I have been wanting to try it for quite a while. This seemed like as good a time as any to go ahead and follow through with that. There are several different plans to choose from.

They measure the most important biomarkers for overall well-being and athletic performance. You learn how each biomarker is affecting your health and are able to pinpoint previously undetected areas for improvement. You are then provided with a personalized plan to track your progress and measure the effectiveness of your actions.

The process has been seamless so far. I signed up yesterday, scheduled my lab appointment at a local Quest Diagnostics location and got my blood drawn at 7:45 this morning. By 7:55 I was done and headed home. I should have the results in a few days and I can’t wait to see what is says. I’ll keep you posted!

Now that we have the physical well-being part covered, let’s talk about the mental burnout for a minute. After a little bit of self-evaluation, I came to a pretty big conclusion.

I don’t love the marathon.

Mind = Blown.

Last year I signed up for NYC only because Daniel and a few other guys that we run with were going to do it. Well, the same thing happened this year with Baton Rouge (I haven’t signed up yet, thankfully). Daniel and a few of his buddies are training for it and so I was just like “ehh, why not.” My heart was not in it (at all) and I started putting off and dreading my workouts. At this point, I’m just thankful that I realized it when I did and not a month or two from now.

Somewhere along the way, the marathon just ended up being one more thing that I thought I was “supposed to do,” and not in a this is my calling sort of way, but in a people expect me to do this sort of way. I think I started feeling this way after Rock N Roll New Orleans. I am realizing now that this was just my perception of other people’s expectations, because let’s face it … no one really cares whether I run a marathon or not.

Side note: I think I need to write an entire post dedicated to all of the “supposed to do” traps that I have fallen into over the years. You’d think I would learn eventually … I feel like I am at least making progress at this point. Baby steps guys.

I love running. Running does not have to mean running marathons.

I’m not saying that I will never run a marathon again, but for right now it’s not what I want to focus on. For now I am going to train for shorter distances, basically from the mile to the half marathon. 1 mile, 2 mile, 5K, 4 mile, 8K, 10K, 15K, 10 mile, half marathon … you name it, I’m game!

Even though the half marathon is only half of the distance of the marathon (hello captain obvious), I feel 10X better after a half than after a marathon. They are so much easier on your body. My favorite part of training for marathons was just that, the training, not the race itself. Even with this new focus, I still plan to get in a few long (ish) runs with friends. I LOVE camaraderie of long training runs with friends and I’m not willing to give that up completely. I just might have to join them for part of their run or something like that.

I’m going to be focusing on QUALITY > QUANTITY. I’m pretty excited about it too! Focusing on the shorter distances (up through the half marathon) over the next year or two will give me an opportunity to (hopefully) improve my times in those races.

I know that some people just like to run for fun (hey, I like doing that too!), but I also think that having goals is important. Goals give you short-term motivation and long-term vision.

Here are some concrete goals that I want to focus on:

Short-Term (current) – General: Focus on speed and shorter distances. Specific: sub 18 5k, sub 37:30 10k, sub 62 10 mile, sub 1:23 half.

Mid-Term (1 to 2 years) – General: Continue focusing on speed and shorter distances. Specific: work down to 17:30 5k, sub 37 10k, sub 60 10 mile, sub 1:20 half.

Long-Term (2+ years) – Consider running a couple of marathons and continue working on half marathon time.

Bigger picture: I want to be able to run healthily and happily my whole life. That’s really the most important goal of all!

While we are on the topic of goals … I am currently working on some non-running goals as well. As a celebration of our first “official” year at the new firm, Nathan and Sharee gave all of the staff members the DVD home study edition of Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University!

We will be watching the videos with our spouses and working on household budgets, etc. and we will also discuss some of the principles during our weekly staff meeting at work.

Financial Peace University (FPU) is a plan for your money. It teaches God’s ways of handling money. Through video teaching, class discussions and interactive small group activities, FPU presents biblical, practical steps to get from where you are to where you’ve dreamed you could be. This plan will show you how to get rid of debt, manage your money, spend and save wisely, and much more!

I’ve never been through the classes before, so I am really excited to get started. I know that it is going to be a challenging, yet rewarding undertaking.

Whew. Lots of good stuff today! I hope you all have a nice long weekend ahead of you!

Ugh. The dreaded topic.

Side note: I really wasn’t wanting to write this post, but I managed to leave my keys in Daniel’s car and he is working all day today, so it’s just me, Brooks and my thoughts here at the house today. Here we go …

Second side note: This post is mainly about running (duh!), but burnout can happen in many different areas of your life as well. About a year and a half ago I experienced career burnout. After 7 years of working 70+ hour weeks during tax season I was just done. I realized that the goal I had been working towards (making partner) was not at all what I actually even wanted. It was one of those things that I just thought I was supposed to do (you have really got to watch out for those “supposed to dos” in life), when in actuality it was the farthest thing in the world from what I wanted.

Burnout is one of those hazards in life that over-achievers should really be keeping a close eye out for … but because of the “I can do everything” mindset, you rarely see it coming. Because you are often passionate about what you are doing, you tend to ignore the fact that your’re working exceptionally long hours, taking on exceedingly heavy work loads, and putting enormous pressure on yourself to excel, thus creating the perfect storm for burnout.

Psychology Today defines burnout as “a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and detachment, feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” Burnout doesn’t happen suddenly. You don’t wake up one morning and all of a sudden “have burnout.” It happens subtly, creeping up on us over time, making it harder to recognize.

Physical and mental burnout can be correlated. Physical burnout can lead to mental burnout and vice versa.

Signs and symptoms of physical burnout include sleep loss, weight loss, increased resting heart rate, increased exercise heart rate, higher incidence of colds and respiratory infections, increased blood pressure, increased muscle soreness and chronic muscle fatigue, decrease in muscle glycogen and loss of appetite.

Signs and symptoms of mental burnout include lack of desire to get out the door and run, increased perception of difficulty on runs, even easy runs, depression, decreased motivation and anxiety about next workout/race.

I think I’ve been teetering on the brink of burnout for several weeks now. My last post “Just Keep Swimming” was my last ditch attempt to convince myself that what I was feeling was normal that I need to push through. Of course it is easier to recognize this in hindsight.

The physical signs were there: I was unable to hit the paces in workouts that I should’ve been able to (based on other recent workouts, races, etc.) on three workouts in a row, I was crazy sore after these workouts (not normal for me) and I was fighting a random stomach bug and respiratory infection. I also went back and tracked my resting heart rate over the last few weeks (#nerdalert) and it was pretty consistently 10 – 15 bpm higher than my typical resting heart rate. Yikes!

As a marathon runner, you will certainly be stiff and sore on some runs and having a bad workout here and there is inevitable. There are very few marathoners that don’t have at least one or two really bad workouts during a training cycle. The key is to realize when it is becoming a trend and when it is an isolated incident. I typically do two hard workouts per week and so to have three in a row not go well definitely meant something was up.

The mental signs were there: I was dreading my workouts. That is absolutely not normal! I mean, sure I can procrastinate a workout with the best of ’em, but dread … that was a new one. The motivation was gone (left the building)!

I have been worked really hard in my training this summer. I’ve put in a lot of long hours (i.e., miles), with a heavy work load (i.e., stress workouts) and somehow I ended up feeling like there was too much pressure on running.

Running is something that I am truly passionate about, but I feel like it’s time to take a little step back and re-evaluate exactly why this is. What I do know is that a lot of things in my life are tied to running right now. I run. I coach runners. I write about running. My shared hobby with Daniel is running. Most of my friends are runners. The list goes on and on. The other thing that I know is that while yes, I am a runner and I [usually] love it, running doesn’t define me as a person and my self-worth is not defined by paces and race times.

I knew that I had to talk to my coach about the possibility of backing off the training a little bit. I was really dreading that conversation. In my mind, I thought telling him that I needed a break was like I was waving the white flag of defeat. I would be saying that the training was too much for me to handle and that I might as well hang up all of my goals right then and there.

He told me, “Admitting you are  human is the first step towards becoming super-human.” Um. Yes! I think I need to frame that somewhere. He also said that it is better to listen to my body now than to fizzle out mid-cycle, which totally makes sense. I am still in the early weeks of marathon training and taking a break from stress workouts for a week or two now isn’t going to completely derail my training (contrary to what the voices in my head were trying to tell me).

What’s next? The plan is to take some time off, mainly from stress workouts, for a week or two. Next week’s schedule says “4-8 miles easy or a rest day” each day. I know that it is going to be hard. At this point, taking a rest day takes more discipline than actually running does.

I am going to focus on being honest with myself and listening to my body. I know that this doesn’t make me weak or a quitter. Hopefully I’ll come back stronger and ready to fight!

Hey guys! Happy Monday!

We are almost to the last week of August, football starts next weekend AND the shrimp boats are back in the bay. Do you know what that means? We are getting closer and closer to fall!

The goods news is that there is in fact a light at the end of this summer heat and humidity tunnel that we have been running through. The bad news is that it might get worse before it gets better. I promise it will get better. Until then … just keep swimming.

It seems to me that sometimes towards the end of the summer, training gets even tougher (mentally) because you think it is *supposed to be* already getting better. Shouldn’t we be acclimated by now? Perhaps to an extent, yes. But as you know, it’s never black and white. You don’t wake up one day magically adjusted and able to run the same pace that you would in cooler, drier conditions. When those cooler and drier conditions come … now that’s another story!

Hopefully you aren’t having to adjust your pace by quite as much as you did at the beginning of the summer though, right? You are making progress!

If you have been training throughout the summer, you have to remember that you have been running in the heat and humidity for several months now and your body is just likely a little bit drained and just worn down. I’m really not trying to be negative (just realistic). My point is that you have to remain diligent in your training and your recovery and patiently wait for the drier air and cooler temperatures.

Keep hydrating and recovering like a champ! We expect our bodies to do a lot for us, so in return we have to do a lot for our bodies. Practice some self care and self love and don’t beat yourself up if your workouts still aren’t going exactly as you hoped (P. S. I’m totally talking to myself right now).

In the spirit of embracing the remainder of the summer weather, Daniel and I decided to hit the beach for a short run yesterday afternoon! He needed a few miles to get over 50 for the week and I was happy to support his need for even numbers.

I did a similar run a few weeks ago. This time we did a little bit of a shorter route, but with the same general plan. We ran 2.5 miles on the road and then headed down to the bay and ran back home on the beach.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to plan this run at low tide. We checked the tide charts, but low tide was at close to 10 p.m., so that wasn’t going to work. We decided to give it a go anyway, but the water was pretty high and the bay was choppy.

I don’t know if “running” would really be an accurate description of what we did. There was some running, but mostly wading, hurdling and rock climbing. I think we will count this as a cross training day!

We had fun! We both agreed that we would like to make a beach run part of our semi-normal routine. We would also like to make yoga, strength training and cooking part of our semi-normal routine as well. Don’t hold your breath!

Tell me: What is something that you have good intentions of doing but that sometimes gets overlooked?