Five for Friday

Over the last week.... 

1. Is it sad that I'm actually excited by how many miles I ran in July? Clearly you can see how I've had less than stellar miles over the last year, but I'm finally starting to feel slightly more comfortable getting into a groove. I'm no where near the stamina or speed I was in the fall, but I'll get there. 

2. Are you familiar with the TimeHop app? If not you SHOULD be.

It basically sends you an update everyday on what you were doing on this day (if you made a post on facebook). The furthest its gone back is 7 years... still waiting to see a college post come in there from 2005-2006 when I first got facebook. Anyway, I was reminded that 1 year ago this week I was in ALASKA with mama J crossing off state # 42

and checking out nature, wildlife, and of course, GLACIERS!!!  Alaska is such a cool state and I was double reminded this week when Elizabeth finally posted her experience from last last month when she ran in Achorage! If you ever have the opportunity to go- 1 week is definitely not enough! 

3. Last week I was able to tap into my inner early 90s self and head out to a (free to me) concert with Coolio and Vanilla ice---- Yes you heard that right.  I wish I could have taken photos of all the characters that came out, but instead you get the 2 songs I was most excited about. 

Vanilla Ice- Ice Ice Baby

Coolio- Gangsta's Paradise

And after Coolio was done he walked into the crowd... he's definitely aged

4. Now that I've been running more (compared to previous months), I've noticed a dull ache in my left knee that just won't go away. It hurts to squat, go downstairs, jump, and of course run.  I'm not sure how to distinguish if its actual knee pain, or if its a result of a tight IT band. Regardless, its extremely frustrating because we've had AMAZING non humid weather for a whole week and I've had to sit a lot of days out to 'rest' despite only running 4-5 miles the day prior. 

Does anyone know how you can tell which type of pain it is?

5. My roommate Kristin is finally moving in at some point next week. Although the solitude has been nice, its also been lonely. Last night we met up for the last week of the free concert series "Dancin in the District" which is along the riverfront downtown Nashville- so much free music in the summer! 

It's nice to have a gal pal that will be around to talk about my day with again. We even finally got our first photo together- front flashes on cameras are never that great! Here's hoping to the start of a beautiful friendship! 

How was your week? Anything exciting? What do you do for persistent knee pain?

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. 

Good bye January, Hello February

Aside from destroying my pathetic training in December and finding a cross training workout, I specifically didn't make any goals for just January and instead focused on 2012 as a whole.
So what DID happen

Miles ran- 91. I normally track my miles daily via Tall Mom's 1000 club, but to my knowledge she hasn't started the 2012 spread sheet  yet, so I literally just found out my mileage yesterday... didn't realize how close I was to 100.
February- Finally get back into the 100s

Highest Mileage week- 39. This is my highest mileage week E.V.E.R. I was so disappointed in running a whopping 40 miles in December, I went gung ho the first week in January and did in 1 week what it took me a whole month to do.
February- I'd like to do a repeat and do 40 miles again- like I said I haven't a higher week before, so we'll see what is possible

Cross Training- 4 Healthways bootcamp classes, core work every other day, 3 p90x shoulder and arms, 1 p90x chest & back (aka MISERY), and 1 p90x legs and back. Aside from core work, that is 9 workouts--- pathetic but that is double what is normal for me.
February- 1 bootcamp a week (min) continue core work every other day, whatever I find for my "new cross training" idea for February I'd like to at least do that twice.

January Races- Only had 1 planned- RnR Rock n Roll Arizona- recap HERE, race photos HERE
February- 1 half... more like THE HALF that I've been looking forward to with Kim R and Rebecca W and her sis L in Austin Texas (yehaw)- Livestrong 1/2. There are a few local races during the this month, so I may try one out just for different distance.... Chris U. and Ashley R-- I need you to hold me accountable for this!

Current Book- The Nine Rooms of Happiness by Lucy Danzinger & Catherine Birndorf. Great read- basically uses a metaphor of a house and all the rooms in it to identify self-destructive patterns of behavior to eventually be able to live a happy more fulfilling life. My not-so-exciting read- "A competency-based framework for Health Education Specialists-2010"--- ugh its so hard to study when half the material is so foreign to me.

Current Obsession- Pinning. TRYING to be crafty (there is a post in the future about my failures with that), finding the perfect protein meal replacement shake, and lastly figuring out work (one job rejection, opened doors to 2 others they thought I'd be qualified for- just want everything to be finalized already)

Current drink- water, daily coffee, and lately I've been craving Spatze (its technically german) but its literally 1/2 coke, 1/2 orange soda-- hold the ice please. I've been indulging in it once a week!

Current Wish List- Shakeology, Wen hair shampoo + conditioner (have you SEEN the infomercials), It's a 10 spray for hair (i have 4 gfs that SWEAR by it in helping hair grow and repairing damage) I'd also like a tan--- I've been tanning since I was 15, but stopped in May when my mom found out she had skin cancer. Both in saving my skin, but also respect for my mom I've been pasty white since summer tan faded away. There are so many things I wish for- house, husband to be, super high paying job etc--- so i'll just stick with the first part of list since I can make those happen easily :)

Current Dislike- Uncertainty with whats the next step for me in my career- 2 jobs I'm looking at aren't in Nashville and I don't want to get uprooted again, but at the same time, I do have to start looking long term. Just wish I would get a sign of what I'm supposed to do.

Current Goal- Fitness- Breaking the 1:50 barrier in the half marathon , losing an inch of my waist. LADIES any advice on dwindling the ever so stubborn "love handles" is GREATLY appreciated. 

Daily Mile Yearly Report

Anyone else out there get their yearly daily mile report sent to them?? I generally log ALL runs, and its hit or miss if I log cross training.

My results weren't a surprise since I'm always tracking, BUT it was a reminder how 2012 needs to be the "year of more consistency"  and doing longer runs- runs on weekdays are normally during my lunch time, so I JUST do 5 miles- need to make up for that by doing longer runs on the weekends.

January- had told myself I wanted to do 100 miles a month- success!
February- IT Band said the 5th day in--- "hey silly,  the most you've run in a month is 65 miles and now you just want to go 112- we don't think so!" Bam- only miles reported were my 3 1/2 mary's I had planned that month
March- 1 half mary + a few 13 mile runs worth of training runs
April- 3 half maries + 17 miles worth of training runs
May- 5 half maries (yikes) + 9 whopping miles of training runs
June- 9 miles---- yup not EVER double digits. My only excuse was May was a BUSY racing month and I just wanted 1 month off- and I think 9 miles if pretty much "off"
July- 1 half mary + 39 training miles--- I actually purposely didn't do too much since I didn't want to go from 1 month off to gung ho- decided I needed to be smart about increasing my mileage and told myself to increase each month by 10
August- 1 half mary + 49 miles of training runs
September - 2 half maries + 44 miles of training runs
Oct- 3 half maries + 1 Ragnar relay (17 miles) + 30 miles of training runs
Nov- 1 Ragnar Relay (17miles) + 41 miles of training runs
Dec- 1 5k + 37 miles of training runs ( was sick last 2 weeks of dec)


As a side note, the first week of January I logged 39 miles- kind of funny that in 1 week I ran just about the same amount as the month previous. Unfortunately I got sick (AGAIN) so my miles will level out a bit so I'm fresh  for first race of the year---  Arizona this weekend!

Anyone else notice any GREAT, or NOT SO GREAT patterns from their report?

my mileage is so low, and it varies greatly month to month

How is your January shaping up so far?!?!

1st week better than month of December- yes please. Plus I'm exciting to FINALLY have a race!!