Vacation!

Last week, we took a family vacation to Tybee Island, GA. It was awesome. Not great timing in terms of training. Honestly, I took all my running stuff and intended to run on the beach every morning. But it was a vacation full of food (some of it delicious, some of it - not so much) and drinking (seriously - margaritas were buy one get one free - TO GO??) and before I realized it, my week was almost over!

My view for my 3m run

But I did get a 3 mile run in (1.5 miles down the roads, 1.5 miles back - against the wind - on the beach). It was gorgeous and made me sad I hadn't been doing it the whole week.










   But with sunrises like this:

and sunsets like this:

it was hard to tear myself away for the time to myself to run.


I'm paying for it, though. I gained about 7lbs, was up to 161 when we got home.  I'm down to 158.5 this am, but still working on getting back to around 153, which seems to be my comfortable place. 

I came home and ran on Tuesday afternoon.  I had the jogging stroller and went 6.5 miles in 1hr 16m (11:46 pace) which is slower than my goal, but I was also pushing a stroller, so I gave myself a little credit

I am hoping to run 8 miles this weekend (9/29) and 10 next weekend (10/6) then begin to taper for the half. I am running a 10K race on 10/14 then the half follows the next weekend (10/21).  I am really hoping to pace myself so that I don't get injured

Here's to not dying!!

Training Check In

Well, I am still training, although I have yet to make it on a weekend long run. The weather is supposed to be PERFECT this weekend. I'm going to set an alarm (because my two small ones usually sleep in on the days I intend to use THEM as my alarms).  I am going to go on a long run this weekend!!

I am supposed to be running 5-6 miles during the week, I've failed on this too. At MOST I'm running between 3-3.5. I have broken my "no class" rule by picking up a really tough circuit class. I am having a great time pushing myself REALLY hard in the class. I bump my speed up to 7.5-8.0 on the treadmill for the circuit interval, I use the heaviest free weights she offers, I always try to do 1-2 more reps.  I am NOT a coordinated person, though, so sometimes I spend a whole interval just laughing at what she's asking me to do :-) Today I even asked her for special "ab cardio" so I spent my time on a stair step with a yoga ball over my head, jumping, sliding and stepping!

I am PRAYING for a break in the weather so that I can start running outside during my son's naptime/daughter's school time. This will be an awesome time for me. In fact, she's at school for three hours, so I am HOPING that I can start using this time for my long runs, instead of taking up family time on the weekends.

We had a surprise trip out of town last weekend, so my training got all pushed around (and even though I had the BEST INTENTIONS and brought everything with e, I still didn't run at the hotel!). So today I managed 4 miles in 40 min on the dreadmill, then my 45 min circuit class.

I OFFICIALLY registered for the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in STL. Happy 31st Birthday to me!!  The race is actually on my birthday!! What's even more exciting is that my mom is usually here for my birthday and she will get to see me race! I am really psyched for that! I am still hoping to shave a good 20-30 minutes off of my Princess Half time for this race. I think it's do-able. I ran that race at a 13:14 pace. I comfortably run a 10 min pace now, which would alone take almost 40 minutes off of my time. So I feel pretty good about saying that my goal finish time will be between 2hrs, 15 min and 2hrs, 20 min.

So until then, training, training, training!!! I am trying SO hard to quit sugar again, I just feel yukky, but things keep coming up. I know, I know, EXCUSES! All excuses!

I have been researching some other "diets" (I hate using that word, they are more lifestyle changes) that I am hoping to explore/flesh out here in the coming weeks.  On my mind: Paleo, clean eating, veganism...  If you or someone you know currently follows these plans, please let me know! I am always looking for more opinions/outlooks!

The Color Run

Seriously? How did I NOT write a post about this most awesome event?! 

The Color Run was in St. Louis on August 18th.  I was SO determined to run this race that, before they announced a STL date, I was planning a road trip to either Cleveland or Chicago, JUST to run this race! 

I was on a team with two other couples (I was the fifth wheel!). We met early that AM for a pre-race photo. And LOTS of waiting. I didn't realize there were 15,000 registered! So the official start time was 8:00am, but we were pretty far back and didn't cross the start line until at least 8:45. It was all good, though. The run wasn't timed, so we weren't concerned.

It was NOT a runner's race for sure. People who aren't familiar with "running etiquette" were walking, sometimes 6-10 across, making it impossible to keep a "run" pace. But it's all good.  

We headed to the first color point, after 1K. It was blue and I have to say, I didn't mind the dye! It's just colored corn starch, so it was nice and soft to run through. I didn't find that it was annoying to breathe as I ran through the wonderful colorful cloud, either, which I know a lot of people questioned. 

As we left the first color, we were all just a little disappointed - we weren't NEARLY as "dirty"/colorful as we expected! But, you live and learn and we noticed that there were better routes to take through the color. So we were DETERMINED to get more color the next time!

The race was a lot of fun, people were having a great time, rolling through the dye piles. We slowed to a walk to go through the color stations, turning and bobbing to get as much color was we could. :-) 

 

We finished the race in 37 minutes, which wasn't bad, considering the amount of walking we did to negotiate the crowds. 

At the end, we caught up with the rest of our group and went to the finish line for the after-race "color party."  A few girls next to us asked what colors we had (blue and green) and asked if we wanted to share theirs (pink and purple), so we all threw our colors together. THIS is where the awesome color came from :-) 

Things I learned:

Take your time through the color sites!!! Spin around, engage the volunteers because they WANT to make you as colorful as you want to be :-)  

Don't run this race for a PR. It's not worth it.

Kids under 5 can run without being registered. How fun, my little runner is already excited for next year's race!


Wet your shirt down (not drenched, but just spritz with water) just before you start. I followed all the directions on how to keep my color in my shirt (I even made a special shirt for the race so that I could keep the colors!) and it ALL washed out - except where I was sweaty (yes, my shirt has blue spots down my back and orange armpits, yum).  So I think the dyes stick a little better on a damp surface.