March in Review

Finding my groove again in March with running...

Total Mileage: 90 miles. With the weather being crappy- I more than last month, however it was on treadmill so my runs during the week went from 5-6 miles in distance, to 3-4 since I can't be on treadmill long
April Mileage: I think I'm ready to shoot for 100 miles again. In order for this to happen, I at least need to have no less than 25 mile weeks... simple math Lisa, simple math

Highest Mileage week: 29. I'd like for this to be the norm and not the high going forward

April: I'd like to build my way up to wear 40 miles in a week seems doable and not downright laughable as it stands right now. Go big or go home so I'm shooting for at least one 40 miler week.

Races Planned / Completed: 2/2 Traveled to Vegas to conquer state #37 with M, Caveman March- much harder than anticipated, but the views and finishing first in AG made it worth it.

Headed to Atlanta over St. Patty's weekend to have a blogger gals race weekend with Elizabeth, Jess, and Kim--- long story short, it was a blast.

April: 3 halfs planned.  This weekend will be double header in Maine- Race the Runways (#38) and New Hampshire- Great Bay 1/2 (#39). Although I STILL haven't signed up, I will most likely be doing the Country Music 1/2 marathon. Not a huge fan of this race, however, work reimburses us for when we finish so naturally a lot of people I know will be running and I hate feeling left out.

Accomplishments for March;

• Finally seeing my paces decrease again
• Got every race planned out (minus Virginia) for finishing up my quest
• Was able to see my whole immediate family for Easter and managed to hold my 9 week old niece, Gweny her crying!

• Big winner of Easter Egg celebration- found the most eggs in the hunt, got the most money in the eggs I did find, AND won the prettiest and ugliest cookie contest- BOOM!

 

Current Book:  GBA- Group Health Plan Design... basically has been my life last few weeks- considering I didnt pass the test... guess it will be even MORE of my life until I schedule my re-take this quarter (by June 30)

Current Excitements/ Obsessions:

• Apartment hunting.... dday is approaching and I still need to figure out what I'm going to do. 
• Warm weather approaching
• New England double header this weekend

Current Treat: I've been making protein chocolate chip muffins like its been going out of style. I decided to 'mix things up' and do it with blue berries... bursting with flavor. I could have 'worse treats'

Current Goal:  Short term- have both races be in the 1:40s this weekend and then I'm going to go for a PR for my Maryland race-- May 18th--- eek I said it, therefore I have to do it. Unsure if this PR will be breaking 1:40, so for now anything faster than 1:42:54 counts :)

March Major takeaway: After talking with many runners (male and female) who are much faster than myself, I've learned that they all do speedwork- shocking I know. I will be starting to add one day a week into my routine to help bring my paces down, but also to learn how to better push myself. 

How was your March?

Everything is starting to click with running. I'm still not where I want to be, but I have a better idea of what it takes to get there. March has also been a trying month on my patience, emotions, and balancing life. 

Any Major takeaways?

You CAN get faster without actual planned speedwork, but you can't get to where you want to be (if being faster is your goal) unless you really do push yourself and start doing a better job of planning your workouts. . 

February Recap

February for me was more or less just about getting back into my routine of working out. Nothing crazy happened

Total Mileage: 88 miles. I was leary about doing "too much too soon" since I haven't even broke 60 miles since August, thus I'm happy with 88.
March Mileage: I think I'm ready to shoot for 100 miles again. I know I also get injured everytime I hit it, but i'm confident those are just all random coincidences.

Highest Mileage week: 32. Some may laugh at that, but i'm truly excited to break into the 30s. I'd like to slowly keep increasing this number

March: I want to build back up to high 30s / an occasional 40, so I'm going to choose 36 miles as its one step closer to 40 than it is to 30. My logic for choosing mileage amazes me.

Races Planned / Completed: 2/1 I thought with all the Valentines races in the area i'd do one, but instead I skipped out. I did complete my first half marathon of the year  - Scenic City 1/2- recap HERE.
Due to my impeccable memory I thought I registered for the race, while at expo it turns out I didn't and registration was closed. I bandited but dropped out before finish line--- thats okay right? 3rd race to date I've bandited.

 

March: 2 halfs planned. Already completed the Caveman 1/2 for state #37, then will be doing a repeat state, Atlanta, GA for a much needed bloggy girls weekend with Kim, Jess, and the lovely Elizabeth for graciously hosting us at her place for the Georgia Publix 1/2. Not going to lie, pretty excited about earning this awesome bling next weekend

 

Accomplishments for February;

• Finally starting to see faster paces and some stamina return
• Made huge progress on finalizing rest of states- will finish Jan next year in Maui!
• Filed and already received tax return.
• Had my performance review at work at got a nice little raise

Current Book: Apparently Christmas day is the biggest sale on kindle books (aka FREE) so I had downloaded a bunch and am now making my way through them. Currently reading

Waking Up Married 

Storyline is the main character goes to Vegas for her cousin's wedding, meets hot guy and parties all night, wakes up married the next day to him. She wants a divorce because she has a plan to have a donor baby and raise it vs. falling in love again and getting her heart broken. Uber rich guy wants a family but doesn't believe in love so he thinks its the perfect partnership to both get what they want. Sounds cheesy but man is it good- I'm assuming they end up falling in love, but I'm not there yet.

For those that like to read books then watch the movie adaptation, I HIGHLY recommend Stephanie Meyer's "The Host"- I read it last year and I know the movie is coming I believe next week--- will actually go to the movie theater to watch it!

Current Excitements/ Obsessions:

•  Apartment hunting.... finally deciding that I'm ready to shell out the extra money and live sans roommate- if only Nashville weren't so dang expensive
• Finalizing a few states to finish 50 state journey
• Atlanta over St. Patty's weekend
• Going home for Easter (and meeting little Gweny for first time)

Current Treat: I normally don't buy ice cream, but I've been on a mint chocolate chip kick lately (its my favorite flavor so this isn't anything new, but i've been having horrible cravings for it)

Current Song: Mowglis "San Francisco" - it's so happy you can't NOT want to dance while listening. It reminds me of group love, which is always a great thing.

Current Goal:  Try to run consistently in the 1:40s as my 'normal pace' for halfs. Also want to lock down in the next month or 2 my last 5 states that are up in the air. 

February Major takeaway: I know I'm 'behind the times' but i'm more and more convinced we can train our feet what type of shoes we want to wear. I didn't work out for 5 weeks, and then when I got back into running I mainly wore my aasic gel tri noosas and my newtons. Both are lighter than my brooks adrenaline, and now when I wear the adrenaline I feel clunky, slow, and that it takes more effort to move my feet. I think its time that I start downgrading the size of my shoe now that my body has started to adapt to more minimal (yay!!!)

How was your February?

Nothing earth shattering, just getting back into my rhythm of things and trying to build back my base 

Any Major takeaways?

how much shoes affect how I feel when I run. I'm also noticing that mileage makes a huge diff on stamina. I know, I know DUH. I NEED to put in some long runs so the half can be easier on me- although these 5 and 6 milers help with speed, they do not give my lungs a good enough conditioning and its showing come race day. 

Three For Thursday

1. I finally got a solid foundation for the first half of 2013 race schedule, always room for changes, but what I have so far is under the upcoming race schedule tab. As of right now my first race to kick of the states is March 2nd in Vegas!

2. Over Christmas break my brother Andy shared the amazing Retail me Not website. Any company you just type it it in and it will show you any coupons. For kicks and grins I wanted to see if I could get a discount on the Publix Georgia half, low and behold walah!!! 

I tested it out with a bunch of different products and was able to get coupon codes for all. Move over www.mobilevids.org, I might have found a new favorite site! 

3. Results are in for finishing my first week of the Ultimate Reset . I really don't want to post photos of my belly as they are extremely unflattering, but I guess that's the  point right? Unfortunately I was solo in the taking photo department, so not the best quality which adds to its awesomeness

Can you say B-L-O-A-T-E-D!  Proud to say my lines are uncovered now, but I'm going to wait till after 3 weeks to post a final photo, can't wait. 

On to the numbers 

Starting:                                                                         Week One:

Chest: 37"                                                                      35"

Bicep 11"                                                                       10.5" (i don't need to lose any inches here!)

Waist: 34"                                                                       33"

Hips: 40"                                                                        40"

Weight: 170 (I haven't weighed this since moved to TN!!)   165.5