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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!

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!