Resolution Run 2014: Bad Days Make For Good Runs

Some days seem stacked against you. Some times, you're doing it to yourself, other times the universe  is simply out to get you.

I my case it had been a couple weeks with not enough sleep that turned everything foul. When my tendinitis returned after my four mile run on the 31st was when I truly became a grump. My sour disposition didn't help any, either. So when I had missed early packet pick up for what is typically my favorite race of the year I was plenty annoyed to discover I had to arrive an hour and a half before the race started to get my number. I know I normally show up that early for any race but it's because I want to, not because I have to. When hundreds of people are forced to arrive that early it's hard to find parking, let alone find a calm spot to warm up.

I arrived fairly early for pick up and got a parking spot right next to the finish, since I had a quick turn around after the race to get to work this was kind of stressing me out. I had mt ankle all taped up and I was doing my best to keep lose before the starting gun went off. It wasn't until I actually began running that I realized how beautiful the day was.

The sun was shining and the water was sparkling. It was 45 degrees both on land and in the water, a fact more important to the people planning their polar bear dive for the end of the race than for me personally. I may run the race every year but I still think the people who jump in the lake are the crazy.

I started the run off strong and my bad mood began to dissipate as I rounded the playing fields. It wasn't until I was around 1.5 miles into the race when I realized how fast I was actually going.

All those fartleks I've been doing recently paid off! I was able to keep it going and actually set a new PR! It was the first time since high school my 5k time was under 30 minutes; I was thrilled! I was sad to run the race without my dad for the first time ever but I made sure to call him the second I crossed the finish line.

It really is amazing how a run can completely turn around your entire day. I went from being a royal grouch to someone with a smile you couldn't sandblast away. That's one of the things I love about running, no matter how complicated life gets running is simple, just put one foot in front of the other until you're done. The longer you go the better you'll feel, I guarantee it. Not always right away, mind you, sometimes your muscles are tight, or you're sore or gasping for air, but you will feel refreshed, renewed, lighter.

As always, loving my new race shirt!

Shirt: Resolution Run 2014
Pants: Under Armour

Work That Booty

Saturday morning I met up with Ela at the gym and this time she was the one who couldn't run. So she stretched while I did a quick mile warm up before meeting her on the mats. After that we were all ready for leg day!

 As always, you can always alter the difficulty on any exercise to meet your personal fitness level. We used weights for everything except the calf raises and split squats, right now it's too hard for us to keep our balance while doing those! We had a great time at the gym despite the New Years crowd beginning to take over what was once open space on the floor. It's great to see people who want to better themselves through healthy living and I sincerely hope they can keep it up in the coming year!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and the final days of 2013, everyone!

Christmas Belles

Sunday was a bit of a day off. The calm before the storm, you might say. I spent the afternoon wrapping presents and trying to finish up the little last minute things I needed done. We went out to see American Hustle for girls night and loved it. It was done by the same people who did The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook. The deeply flawed characters were perfectly played and a joy to watch.

We were all thankful for our rest day when Monday rolled around. Everyone in my house seemed to get sick all at once. My brother picked up my sore throat and my mom came down with the flu. We also still had a dinner party to put on for all my brothers friends who are home for the holidays. All twenty-something of them. I love them, they're like family to me, but that is a lot of people to feed all by yourself. Luckily, I had help. Two of my best friends, who are absolute saints, came over to help out.

Ela, me, and Chara

After a haphazard costco trip my brother sent out a note to all the guys and told them it was now a potluck. Turned out to be the best idea since we went from not knowing how to make enough food for all those people to not knowing how we were going to eat all the food everyone had brought! Later that night I actually had to finish off most of a gallon of milk just so there would be room for everything in the fridge! The guys really impressed me with their cooking skills, and they were dressed to kill. The whole night was a success.

The next day was Christmas Eve but since everyone was feeling icky they stayed in bed and I enjoyed leftovers with my dad. We watched some action flicks and hung out around the house since everything else in town was closed. The guys from the dinner party the night before all ended up joining me for the midnight candlelight church service that night after Dad had gone to bed.

The next day my mother was finally able to get out of bed for the first time all week! We watched our favorite Christmas movie, Miracle, and enjoyed more leftovers (seriously, there was so much food!). It was a pretty low key Christmas compared to years past but it was nice to have some days off and get to spend time with my family.

The biggest highlight of Christmas day for me was when I was finally well enough to go for a run! It had been 16 days since I had last run and I had only managed to get in about eight miles the entire month! My friends thought it was great because they finally had the chance to beat me for most miles run on our Nike+ Running apps but the urge to run was too much. After taking it easy and not doing any cardio for the entire time I had been sick I was desperate for a run.

I told myself I was just going to go see what I could do comfortably. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty but I didn't care, I just needed to lace up and get outside. I expected to run about 5 miles but when I hit what would have been the turn around at 2.5 miles I was feeling strong enough to keep going and turned it into a 6 mile run. Not bad for taking a few weeks off.

I should have stretched out after, though, because I was feeling pretty tight the next day! All the lifting I had been doing had kept my quads, and hamstrings in fairly decent shape but I hadn't done nearly enough for my calves. Whoops! Since I was a gymnast for years and years before I began running I have a tendency to run entirely on my toes, regardless of how far I'm going. Which means when I'm in top shape I have wonder calves that are so disproportionate to the rest of my body I actually have to go a size up in boots. But when I'm not running they shrink back up to a more normal size that isn't strong enough to support endless mileage.

I am, however, determined to reverse those effects since I spent my Christmas day signing up for races after I got back from my run. I've got my latest training schedule all worked out and am looking forward to building up my base so I can hit about a hundred miles a month and not just twenty or so. I didn't do nearly enough training for my last half and looked a bit like a ghost when I crossed the finish line. I don't want to feel that drained again. Especially since I signed up for my very first marathon that I will be running this summer!

After four years of being a sometimes serious, sometimes not-so-serious, runner I'm ready to take the plunge and finally conquer 26.2 miles! The farthest I've ever run is a little over a half so I'm nervous-excited but also totally pumped to cross this off my list of things I've always wanted to do. Especially since my "Racing Bucket List" is pages long and most of them are a length I've never before attempted. Time to get started on making some dreams come true!

As you can see from the photo above I did sneak in one more run this week, too. Before my training program begins for real on the 30th. I dashed outside after work and managed to get in the three miles before the sun set. I then went back into the gym and did Fran before going home for the day.

When I got home I had some of my favorite broccoli and cheddar soup and watched an old favorite, You've Got Mail; with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks (1998). I then passed out on the sofa and missed almost the entire Fight Hunger Bowl game in which my precious Huskies were playing. I ended up sleeping for so long I was hungry again when I woke up, but it was too late for any actual sort of meal so I grabbed a handful of the mini bell peppers I bought in bulk a couple weeks back and snacked on them, instead.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas week!!

Christmas is Coming!

Saturday started with a late morning and meeting Ela at the gym a little before noon. She hoped on a treadmill and busted out 2.5 miles while I stretched out. So far there is only a tiny bit of progress in terms of my flexibility but I haven't gotten stuck again so I'm looking at the little victories. It was legs and core day for us so I wrote up a workout we'll probably change if we're going to use it again; it was a bit harder to remember than I meant it to be!

 Next time I would make all the abs exercises the same number of reps so we can remember it easier but otherwise it was a great workout!

After our morning workout we dashed home to get ready for our friend's annual cookie decorating party! We had a blast demonstrating our sometimes horrific, sometimes not completely awful, decorating skills. No matter how many we make we never seem to get any better! Oh well, at least we had a good time!

I'm wearing 4 inch heels and everyone else is in flats!

You all know I'm a big supporter of clean eating and cookies don't exactly fall into that particular category but there are ways to make it work. I made sure to eat a big meal before I got to the party so I wasn't hungry for anything. Most times you think you're hungry your body is actually trying to signal to you that it needs to be re-hydrated so try drinking some water or tea before heading straight to the snacks! I should have kept my water bottle with me so I could reach for that instead of a cookie if I felt a craving. Great sweet treats I've found to curb cravings are fruits. For example: apples are low in calories but high in fiber so they fill you up without weighing you down. They're also great for your skin and digestive system.

All in all, Saturday was a splendid start to the weekend and Christmas Week!


Sweater: Ralph Lauren
Jeans: Joe's

Abs Are Made In the Kitchen!

Friday brought snow to Seattle! Not that it lasted long, slightly warmer temps and a little rain washed all the snow away by mid-afternoon but it was still a beautiful sight to see in the early morning!

Sadly I still can't go out running but that hasn't been stopping me from getting my sweat on in the gym! My legs were still sore from Thursday's stretching after work when I met up with my best friend to give our cores a little TLC.

We broke this workout into three sections because of how our gym is laid out, if it works to do all of them as one group then go for it!

For this one you'll want a mat, a bar to do pull ups, inverted crunches, and leg lifts on, as well as the ability to do lat pull downs somewhere. The wall sit doesn't have to be weighted if you don't want it to be and you can do whatever time on the plank you're comfortable with; just remember you're doing it 4 times!

After we parted ways I went home and tried to pump myself full of all the germ-fighting vitamins I could get my hands on in the fridge. I'm ready to be over this sinus infection and strep already! I found a giant bag of mini bell peppers and knew exactly what to do.

I grabbed six and a cutting board as well as extra virgin olive oil, a box of quinoa, and some spinach. In the time it took for the quinoa to cook I had diced all the peppers and was ready to mix it all together. I was pretty excited about this dinner because none of the other people I live with enjoy eating either peppers nor quinoa but since I had the place to myself for the evening it was chef's choice. The food ended up big enough for multiple meals so I pulled out some tupperware to store the extras for the rest of the weekend and mixed together what I needed for a single serving.

The warm quiona with the fresh veggies ended up being exactly what the doctor called for and I gobbled the whole thing up. Looking forward to seeing what other variations I can make from the leftovers this weekend!

Arm Burners

After Wednesday's leg workout we were each a little sore but we agreed not to let it stop us from showing up again on Thursday! My best friend, Ela, needed a break from the arc trainer and opted for a 5k on the treadmill instead.

While she was working up a sweat I was camped out on a mat working on my flexibility. After stretching for 25 minutes I got into a deep straddle to stretch a bit more while I waited for my friend to finish her warm up. I kept inching my legs further and further back until IT happened. I got stuck! I was completely unable to move and too proud to ask a random gym member for help. So I waited for Ela to join me. And waited. And waited. After what felt like an eternity, but was really only ten minutes (I stretch with a stopwatch) she finally found me trapped on the floor. Lucky for me she had no trouble picking up my feet and bringing them back together so I could get up.

Only trouble was, my legs were to wibbly-wobbly to support me! I looked like a total goof as I tried to stand up and gather my stuff. Even hours later my family commented on how funny I was walking. Whoops! Guess I had a little too much stretching after all!

Fortunately for me it wasn't legs day and I was still able to make it through our arms workout!

This was a tough one and the final round really kicked our butts but we agreed we wanted to keep doing it until it was easy! Glad I made another keeper for us to rotate though!

We used 5lb dumbbells for the arm raises and a 10lb ball for the wallballs. A 15lb kettlebell and 25lbs on the rope pull downs rounded out the circuit.

Let me know what you think of this one if you give it a try yourself!

Sick and Still Lifting

So after being told I was simply suffering from a sinus infection and was not contagious and would get better with time and rest I went about life as usual. I went out with friends nearly every night; it's remarkable how much more free time I have now that I'm not allowed to run until I'm all better. I went to see The Hobbit The Desolation of Smaug (it was, hands down, the best one yet), I spent time with the grandparents, I went Christmas shopping,  attended dinner parties. And slowly but surely began to feel better. Then, it happened. Monday morning I received a call from the doctor saying they had made a mistake and I did have strep throat after all. Not only that but I was incredibly contagious. I had been running around like Typhoid Mary for weeks. When my boss heard she ordered me to stay home for a couple days despite my claims to feeling better than I had the week before.

After a couple days of antibiotics I was finally allowed back to work but not before being reminded how much I hate being lazy. Don't get me wrong, there are days when I want nothing more than to crash on the sofa and binge watch tv but on most days I'd rather be out getting fresh air and bouncing around at the gym, park, with my dogs, family or friends. When "relaxation" is forced on me it's not so relaxing after all. I was restless the whole time and did not even manage to enjoy my time off.

Lucky for me, I'm still allowed to work out, at least a little. And my workout buddy was happy to hear it, too!

Today we started off the same as last time, 30 minutes of her on the arc trainer and me stretching.

You might notice I've been throwing calf raises in more often but I've found that without running all the time I've been losing the definition in my legs - so not ok! I may not be able to run yet but that doesn't mean I can let the muscles atrophy!