February Review

February was a month of discovery. I got my focus and routine back. I made the transition to severely cut back on running and to not stress about it, and instead up body weights and exercises. I've been religious about yoga 2x week, t25 5x week, and from there getting in a run when I'm able or another class. On the social front, the roommate and I have also grown a lot closer since her and the boyfriend broke up. I rarely have those "lonely" moments when I have nothing to do because she's always finding different activities for us to participate in, and through that new friendships with others have been made!


Total Mileage:  61 miles- haven't broken 60 miles since November... ironic that when i decided to 'cut back' I run more mileage--- mostly due to Ragnar.

Highest Mileage week: 23- all my miles were during my 2 day Ragnar Del Sol stint- didn't run a single mile outside of this during that week.

Races Planned / Completed: 2/2

My first ever 15k- instant PR- Recap HERE-- organization of Ram Racing was great, swag was awesome, course and weather were brutal.

Another Ragnar Relay crossed off the list- escaping to sunny AZ while the rest of the country still has bitter cold temps- best decision ever! Recap HERE

New to Me: (Because you should always be trying something new) 

• Bought T25 focus and am well into week 3. Originally was doing it in my living room with the roommate, but then my downstairs neighbor complained about 'excessive jumping', so my new home for 25 min each day is our yoga room

• 15k was a new distance
• Went to Tunica, MS for a trivia tournament- who would've thought they had these types of events?

Accomplishments for February 

• I finally found my focus and am honing in on sculpting and transitioning from "runner" to "athlete". Already notice increased strength, flexibility, and flatter stomach! Its nice to have structure again. 
• Branched out of my traditional distance and tried something new for a change
• Ran 2 races without a care about time and never once looked at my watch (kind of a big deal for me) 

Current Book:  Nothing at the moment

Current Excitements/ Obsessions:

• Ragnar Trail Atlanta with Elizabeth, roomie, and 6 other lovely ladies I have yet to meet to represent Nunn.  Team Elecktrolit (their new flavor) is bound to be a blast 
• Watching my body transform

Current Songs: 

Since I've misplaced my ipod again, I've been using my phone (pandora) to fuel workouts. Can't get enough of Knife Party, Skrillex, and Dead Mau5--- great beats. 

Current Treat

Last year around this time I kept finding random flavors of my favorite cereal- first there was 

Then a week later I found this gem

Now here I am finding yet another (and my current treat)

What will they come up with next? For me its a great 'finisher' after dinner when I want something sweet. Healthy- no, but it could be worse. 

Current Goal (s):  

Same as last month: Main focus is to do what I need to get my body back on track before summer (Mid May- June) :

• Lose 10-15 lbs (down 4lbs, however noticing a big transition in my mid section and legs, so not as concerned with scale #s) 
• Although I'm still going to run- my focus is switching to more weights / sculpting- currently running about 1x a week. 
• Up the produce-- every single meal has a ton of veggies, now I just need to work on the fruit
• At least run 1 race a month- got in 2 last month and have at least 1 planned for the next few months

February Major takeaway:  Consistency has ALWAYS been my downfall, so its continually been something I try to work on. Having Leah join me in T25 has been a  blessing since she has become my accountability partner to keep me on track. It's not rocket science, but its amazing when you make something a priority, how you start to restructure your day to ensure said activity gets done.  I've found myself on more than one occasion waking up early to get in my workout because I know I won't have the opportunity to do so during or after work. I'm not a morning workout person, so this is progress for me. Can't wait to see what March has in store. 

How was your February?

Hot Chocolate 15k Recap

You'd think since there is a race almost every weekend here in Nashville that I'd be jumping on board to fill up my schedule and earn some extra bling. That is just not the case since I've been saving money for traveling, and of course Nashville can be quite hilly. Now that the states are over,  I have  more funds, and my weekends free, (although hills are still here) one of my small goals for running this year was to participate in more local events.

For the past 2 solid months I've been on a hot chocolate kick. I blame the less than stellar temps (come on mother nature, we're in the south!) + my sweet tooth for my nightly relaxing hot chocolate binge. When I caught wind that the Hot Chocolate 5k / 15k series was coming through our city, I knew I HAD to do it.

Since I'm not in any 'speed' kind of shape, nor do I have any desire to "race" anytime soon I chose the 15k option... since its a new to me distance and I can go into the day without any expectations.

Jen and I before the race

For those of you that know me... I don't sugar coat things. I tell it like it is both on here, and in real life. This race was not all bacon and cupcakes (this is my replacement for rainbow and butterflies since I'm not 12 anymore and neither of those things gets me excited.. bacon and cupcakes, well they do). 

I feel like a "broken runner" - my attitude for races just sucks. I have zero desire to push myself. Seriously ever since Hawaii I've been averaging 0-3 days a week of running... most often 1 day. The only reason for going through with this race is because I was carpooling with above friend Jen and I didn't want to let her down. 

Why it sucked:

• 23 degrees + wind + no sun = miserable temps. It was strange because after awhile I started sweating, yet my hands and feet were numb... make up you mind weird body! 
• HILLS. Ya ya ya, Nashville has some hills. I can run hills just fine, however, ours are long and never ending. When you think you're done, you have more to go. In my 4 years here I have actually never ran up West End before. For those that are familiar with Country Music Marathon- this is the street you run all the way down in the first mile (although course is changed for this year)--- now imagine having to run up that in the wind- gah. 
• I never found my groove. Just as all things Lisa fashion my first mile was just following everyone and when I clocked in at 7:19 I pulled back knowing I would eventually die (one of these days I'll just wait till that happens and see what kind of time I can pull off) Since I decided to take it easy, apparently that meant shortening my stride. By mile 6 my hips were so sore from change of gait and I couldn't stride out if I tried because they had gone into robot mode. 
• And the other big reason for me on why it sucked is I just didn't care. Seems silly, but having no goals and no expectations, and frankly no desire to even do well apparently means that I will hate every minute of said activity while doing it. Noted. 

Since my experience was less than stellar, I debated on even blogging about it, however all my negativity had nothing to do with the organization RAM racing put into the event, so I figured for all those who are interested in a Hot Chocolate event, you might want to know about what a fabulous job they did.

• Expo was quick and painless in and out. I found a code if you registered by a certain date to receive a free travel mug with registration. My current mug is too big to fit in my car cup holders, this is the perfect replacement and I used it daily

not mine, source 

• Typically the swag aka race shirt is subpar and ill fitting. I'm not kidding when I say I FREAKING LOVE this hoodie. My race was Feb 15 and I've probably worn this bad boy 7x since then, even brought it with me last weekend to Phoenix and got so many compliments (so many others with it on as well) They let you try on sizes to exchange, since it was slightly fitted, I opted to change my L for the XL so it could be more roomy. The inside of the hoody and the stitching is what inspired my newest nail color as well 

• The 5k started at 7 and the 15k started at 8. We had slightly different starting areas, hence why corral "A"  is actually "I" for 15k.  I loved loved loved that the first few corrals they explicitly call out "no walkers" As I'm sure is the case for many of you, this is a huge pet peeve of mine when you have to bob and weave around walkers in the first mile of the race. 

• Every mile was marked AND had a clock with it- so rare to find that these days. I will say that for our course we apparently shared the first 2 miles with the 5k and the first mile marker was for us, but then maybe a min later there was another 1 mile marker for the 5k, same thing for mile 2. If you didn't have a GPS watch on  I could see where this would be confusing. 
• Water stations aplenty. They were perfectly spaced out about every 1.5-2 miles If it were hot I might have been upset that most were water and only 1 had gatorade, but in the cold I don't care. The first aid station I was handed a cup of ice so I had to swap it out for one that wasn't already frozen over. They don't supply you with gu, so if you feel you may need it for 15k, just bring your own. 
• There are a lot of out and backs which I actually like. Although it personally didn't help motivate me for this race, traditionally I love getting to pass by other runners, see friends if applicable, and just feed off everyone's energy. 
• Lots of spectators for this race. My philosophy on this is because its a unique concept to get a bunch of chocolate goodies at end of race, you have people that traditionally don't enter races do it for fun, hence more spectators to cheer on their friends in their rare 'race day performance' 
• Quite a few photographers on the course- dont be fooled by this photo- was actually rounding the corner to finish line, hence the smile

• Saved the best for last, but the after refreshments... OBVIOUSLY

hot chocolate. liquid chocolate to dip banana, wafers, pretzels, and rice krispie treats in. Pretzels were my fave for the sweet/ salty combo. Since it was FREEZING, my rice krispie treat was rock solid hard

Trying to get as much chocolate on my mouth as possible. 

Despite my misery, I'm glad I got a 15k under my belt. It did run long so I had 9.5 on my garmin, finishing in 1:18 with a 8:20 pace. Not bad for hating life and walking a ton. Aside from the mounds of chocolate consumed and getting in a 9.5 mile run I surely would have not done on my own, another good did come from the race-- I realized how greatly my attitude affects the outcome of not only performance, but also outlook on the race. Although I was originally excited when I signed up to run, on actual race morning I went into it with an "i don't want to be here" negativity. This continually grew as the miles ticked by and just made the entire run a train wreck.  I did learn from this and shifted my attitude for my next race following weekend (Ragnar Del Sol), which I will be blogging about next, but what a difference it made. 

If you have one of these events come to your city, I'd recommend checking it out. Next year I may just do the 5k--- all the same swag but about $27 cheaper! 

Weekly Recap 2/10-2/16

Monday

Yoga

Weights at home 

Extremely busy day at work to prep for our site visit to San Antonio the following day- didn't get finished tying up loose ends till well after my run group met (and it was freezing) so I skipped the run. Watched the Olympics with the roommate and commentated on the awesome butts on speed skaters and the lackluster excitement of the 1500 skating. Then this happened...f

I might have never mentioned Leah is friends with Sara and Ryan Hall - used to run with Sara and went to their wedding etc. Slightly jealous and definitely ups the roomie's cool factor

Tuesday

No workouts- travel day to San Antonio, TX for work. Naturally as luck would have it we were welcomed with 40 degrees and pouring rain whereas the rest of week was full of sunshine and 70/80 degree weather. Spent the bulk of the day meeting colleagues who will be working on the account I work with, as well as learning the differences of their protocol / processes vs. Nashville. I got hit on which was pretty funny. Rounded out the day with dinner and tons of great food and beer- they even carried Alaskan beer (only certain states carry it) 

Biggest brownie ever and I'm still in awe that I couldn't finish it

Wednesday

p90x Core Synergistics

Travel back to Nashville, was fighting a major headache since the night before so worked from home rest of the day. Roomie and I met up with some folks for dinner and drinks and I added this awesome addition to my pint glass collection (I have over 40) 

Thursday

R.I.P.P.E.D class

Busy day at work. We had our hardest ripped class to date (finally learned what it stood for: resistance, intervals, power, plyometrics, endurance, distance) Usual Thursday routine, come home, unwind, watch "The Taste" while making different items in the kitchen. 

Friday- Valentine's Day

Yoga

My Valentine this year (and who am I kidding, every year) was my parents. Mama J made me heart cookies and the parents bought me an awesome daughter necklace. Shaun T was delivered, and I had a bunch of chocolate at the Hot chocolate 15k expo. We won't even go into how I had to pay for parking, $8, and thought I'd use cash- only the machine doesn't dispense change and took my whole $20. (I hate downtown parking) The celebration / anti-celebration would commence on 15th, so 14th was a quiet night at home.

Saturday

Hot Chocolate 15k - Recap to come. Short version- it was incredibly cold and ridiculously hard course. 

Probably the sexiest photo I've posted on this blog to date- promise I'm not that pasty, chose a bad filter

Got my nails did

Started day 1 of T25 with roomie- definitely will be waiting to share the 'before' photos until I can show some progress- day 1 went well, calves a little sore from the run earlier in the day combined with all the jumping in the video.

Rounded out the day by preparing for our Single's get together later that evening. We thought it would be a great idea to embrace our inner college self and make pink panty droppers- 10 beers, half handle of vodka, 6 lemonade concentrates- sweet, but good (although we had several, 1 was enough) 

Sunday

Woke up incredibly sore, but it was in the 50s (compared to day befores 20s), so I had to go for a shakeout run and enjoy the temps. 

4 miles 8:40 pace

Waited for roomie to finish her bike ride then did day 2 of t25. So far the moves aren't terrible, its just some of them are awkward and seeing as we both run, we only work certain muscles. We had a rolling gab session together afterwards- quads, it bands, calves galore

Finished the day by heading to our regional championship trivia tournament... yes sounds silly. 50 teams around Nashville (top 5 teams at each location) were battling it out to make it to the ultimate championship in Tunica, MS in 2 weeks for the chance to win $25,000

Team "Coming in Hot"

Yes I'm the only female. For the championship you're only allowed 5 people, and since I've been around the longest I made the cut, whew. It's nice to know my random knowledge can come in handy at times. I also think its because of my awesome whit and humor I bring every week

It's a "party for your entire mouth"- seriously, who doesn't love these?!?!

:sidenote: proof I'm not pasty white 

At half time we were in 13th place, by the end of 10 rounds we were in 4th (top 6 go to MS). The "final" question is always putting items in order and you wager up to 30 points (if right you keep, if not you lose). I had to pull the executive / bitchy card and say since we were not 100% sure on our answers we were not going to wager any points because since the stakes were so high (and the questions were so difficult), the only teams that would wager are those trying to guess to make it in top 6. Leave it to the female to be right and we only dropped 1 place (an underdog team bet it all and lucked out) and we ended up 5th!!! 

March 1st we're heading to Tunica, MS to play amongst 119 other teams to see who is the grand winner (I'm told told top 3 actually get cash) It will be kind of nice to travel without having a race to run! 

On that note, all my spare time shall be spent studying the internets about presidents, geography, and literature- my 3 weakest categories. 

Total Workouts for the week

Runs (2)13 miles

Yoga 2 days

Weights / videos 5 days

Anything noteworthy in your week?

Fan of poprocks??

Had a hilarious / bad experience with watermelon, but love the other flavors

Do you have any obnoxious drink that takes you back to college?

I'm a beer snob and that is typically what I stick to, however in college it was all about what you could afford. $10 diluted bottle of vodka, 1L of mt. dew, few packets of kool aid and you have "razzle". I might puke if I were to attempt to drink that now.