Week 4+: Please do not read if hungry

I started to write a bloop on Sunday, got 2/3rds of the way finished, and then somehow managed to shut down the laptop.  I was tired anyway and just decided it was meant to be.  So not only do I have to catch up with last week's running & other adventures, but I have part of this week's as well.

I have been busy, busy, busy and not just with running and working!

But first, as always, the running.

Last Tuesday: Plan was 6 easy @ 9:18, Actual was 8:25, 8:20, 8:17, 8:07, 8:24, 8:14

Wednesday: Plan was 5 easy @ 9:18, Actual was a 5 mile, 50 minute program treadmill run with walking to warm up and cool down.  The running portion was between 6.0mph (10mm) and 6.7mph (8:57mm)
Thursday: Plan was 5 easy @ 9:18, Actual was 8:16, 7:37, 7:51, 7:46, 7:46
Saturday: Plan was 6 easy @ 9:18, Actual was 8:25, 8:14, 8:06, 8:20, 7:55, 7:53
Monday: Plan was 3 easy @ 9:18, Actual was 3 @ 8:34 (TM run)

Today: Plan was 16 easy @ 9:18, Actual was 16 @ 8:12, splits: 8:17, 8:01, 8:13, 8:13, 8:13, 8:19, 8:09, 8:11, 8:22, 8:17, 8:10, 8:24, 8:16, 8:18, 7:56, 7:49

I have to confess that last Thursday's run was because I got a little competitive on the Greenway.  I had just finished the first mile and started to creep up on another runner.  As we got to a small incline on a bridge, I overtook him by going a little faster than I had been so that I could distance myself once I went past.  We hit the decline and I picked up the pace to (hopefully) give us a little space.  I went about 2/10ths of a mile before I was about to pass some walkers.  As I looked over my left shoulder to avoid cyclists or faster runners, the runner I had passed was right there. I blurted out, "sorry", and tried not to crowd his space as we went around the walkers.  Now that I was aware that he was right on my tail, I continued to pick up the pace.  After another 1/10th of a mile, he came shoulder to shoulder and started running right next to me. We huffed next to one another for a minute or two before I ripped out one of my ear buds and said, "hi, I'm Carissa!". He huffed out, "hi Carissa, I'm Jeff". We ran until we hit the 2.5 mile mark where he told me that I kept a great pace, have a great run, and turned around.  I was doing a 5 miler too, but Garmin had me at like 2.45 miles and I was supposed to be running easy, so I ran a bit more before I turned around.  I guess I was so amped up that I just kept running at tempo pace...oops.

Today's run was all together different.  I don't know what it is about 16 miles, but I hate it, hate it, hate it.  18 is fine, 20 is peachy, but I don't think I have ever had a good 16 miler in my history of running.  And because I have these negative thoughts about it, I am likely putting the curse on myself.  I had problems from the get go with my ear buds only piping in Pandora at half-sound.  So, like, I was getting a lot of the treble and no bass.  Super annoying.  I tried all my tricks and for the first half mile, I kept stopping trying to get my music going.  The music was an ongoing annoyance because I kept trying it and finally resorted to just listening to it sans ear buds for the last 8 miles--my apologies to the few other patrons on the Greenway today that might have gotten an earful of Pitbull or LMFAO.

But the big problem of today was that my legs felt like bricks.  I had no pep in my step.  My fuel belt felt heavy, I felt tired, my body hurt--it was like a culmination of all the bad running stuff suddenly rained down on my run.  I started questioning my own abilities.  I would try to slow down, but that didn't feel any easier or better and then I would speed up, and that didn't help either.  I was playing rabbit and tortoise the entire run and it was more mentally draining than anything else.

When I was done, I noticed that I was covered in salt.  I'm a salty sweater anyway and this was certainly not anything new, but it tends to happen in the heat of summer.  It was pleasantly in the upper 60s today (why my mojo didn't appreciate this, I don't know).  So while I cannot blame all the ugliness of the run on a lack of proper hydration/sodium levels, I know that the excessive salt is not really a good thing.  Let's just hope that 18 miles plays nicer next week!

Okay, if you've made it this far, you deserve to see that fun stuff that I've been up to when I haven't been running my easy runs too fast and getting my butt handed to me by my long runs.

First, I thought I should include a pretty picture from my run today:


Followed by a much-needed ice bath:



I created a new twist on trying to tough out the ice bath.  I decided that I could only get out of the ice bath when I finished today's crossword.  Please note that this super dork only does crosswords in pen and I own clipboards (yes, 2) specifically for my crosswords.  But don't be too impressed, they are only the USA Today crosswords.

The before:



And the after:




I've working on my all over fitness with the September Fitness Challenge.  Mainly trying to stay on the gun show circuit:




And drinking green smoothies in an effort to combat all the party food I've been ingesting:




Because last weekend, I hosted a Mary Kay spa party at my house with lots of yummy things.  I tried to keep it light and healthy with cucumber water:



Caprese skewers and dried fruit:


But we also had to have a little cheese too:




I baked some pumpkin bread last week and sent a little care package to my 90 year old grandma:




Then I started baking, cooking, and prepping for my sister's engagement party.  I was in charge of all the food and flowers while the other hostesses provided the games, decorations, and venue.

We started with strawberry mimosas made with pureed strawberries and rose champagne:



My sister is gluten-free, so I created a menu with all GF-friendly foods.  We had tarragon chicken salad on apple slices, spicy pimento cheese atop cucumbers, truffled egg salad on GF bread, blue cheese stuffed cherry tomatoes, mixed nuts, olives, and "he popped the question" popcorn:




For dessert, I made GF chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  It's supposed to look like a wedding dress, but I was running out of time to perfect it:





The decorations turned out beautiful and I was so glad that the other girls are crafty:






Instead of a traditional guest book, I hustled my brother into buying a giant bottle of wine (a Jeroboam for all you oenophiles) to have all the guests sign with a metallic sharpie.  The sign says "A guest book is fine, but we prefer you sign the wine".  Thought of by one of the hostesses awesome DH!:





And lastly, the requisite picture of at least one of the Boston Terriers:

Week 3: Shenanigans > running stats

You can read about my running or just skip to the fun pictures of my week!

Week 3 of train-for-a-BQ is in the bag.  I am still have on again, off again foot pain that is likely exacerbated by work and duh, running.  But I taped it up a few days this week and that seemed to help a bit.  Whatevs. I just keep running.

Here are the numbers:

Tuesday: Plan was 4 easy @ 9:20, Actual was 4 in 8:34, 8:34, 8:27, 8:20.
Wednesday: Plan was 6 total with 4 tempo @ 7:54 on Thursday, Actual was 6 in 8:11, 7:46, 7:27, 7:35, 7:15, 7:37
Friday: Plan was 4 easy @ 9:20, Actual was 4 in 8:32, 8:27, 8:20, 8:13
Sunday: Plan was 14 easy @ 9:20, Actual was 14 in 8:10, 7:55, 7:54, 8:01, 8:01, 8:05, 7:57, 7:52, 7:51, 7:50, 7:51, 7:59, 7:45, 7:34

Tuesday I felt great and relaxed. Wednesday's tempo was tough at first (I ran after work), but I got into my groove. Friday was okay--not good, not bad.  Today's run was okay all things considering.

I woke up at 4am because the dogs were stirring and so I let them outside.  Torrance (the 5 year old BT), bolted out towards the back fence and caught a rabbit trying to escape.  It made a terrible yelping noise that traumatized me all morning. I woke poor Adam up to dispose of the rabbit.  I had a pet bunny growing up and while I'm not immune to the cycle of life and hierarchy of animals (I do enjoy my meat!), I am particularly sensitive to this.  It took me about an hour to calm my nerves and fall back asleep.

The alarm went off just before 7am and while I snoozed a bit, I knew I needed to get out before it got too hot.  I had my coffee, a bagel with peanut butter, and drove to the Greenway.  The tickle in my throat wasn't any better than the night before--Adam's been battling a cold all week--but I wasn't going to let that hold me back.  The first couple of miles I was feeling sleepy and lethargic.  After I hit the bathroom at the 3.5 mile marker, I felt a little peppier from my brief intermission.  The next few miles were hot as I was in the sun, but I finally started to feel like I was awake.  At just past mile 7, I got to the turnaround point and refilled my water bottles and at my Gu.  The next 3 miles I actually felt pretty solid and kind of got lost in my thoughts for a bit.  The final 4 miles I alternated between feeling good and creaky every few minutes.  It was getting quite warm and while I was in the shade, I couldn't wipe the sweat away because it was so humid.

Now, onto the fun stuff, pictures of my week!

First, a few pictures of running. Like, my 14 mile run stats:





And a post-run stretch with the hooligans:




Plenty of healthy fuel both pre- and post- running like salads:



 Green smoothies with kale, kiwi, honeydew melon, and green apple:



A bagel with PB:


And a monster stack of blueberry pancakes:



The beer challenge seems to be living on however.  In the form of Dos Equis while at dinner on date night:




And some pumpkin beer while tailgating (for no event, just life) in the parking lot of the liquor store after dinner. Adam (the DH) is taking the picture of Jeff (our date night extra) and I:




Finally, the crazy BTs.  Torrance is the wild child:




But she and Luxy can be cute snuggle buddies both in the morning:



And in the afternoon:



Time for a cutback week and more adventures!

Week 2 will bore you to tears (sorry!)

I have been completely lacking in my comments on others' bloops.  Please don't take offense.  The past 2 weeks I have either been walking with Adam in the evening and/or had too many other things I was busy with (re: beer challenge) to concentrate on catching up on bloops.

I wouldn't even write a bloop except for the fact that I wanted to try to at least have a once a week check in while I train to BQ. If I'm successful, these bloops will give me great joy to reread.  If I fail this go 'round, I will try to understand if/when my training went wrong.

I'm no marathon expert.  I've only run 5. I like to think of them as (1)bonk, (2)gleeful, (3)poopy-pants, (4)mojo-killer, (5)awesomesauce.  So I have a little bit of knowledge under my belt about how this could all go down.  It all comes down to race day morning and how my body and mind decide to cooperate. 

Week 2 of training went pretty well. 

Tuesday: scheduled 5 easy @ 9:21 actual 9:05, 8:34, 8:13, 8:13, 8:34

Thursday: scheduled 6 speed with 3X1 @ 7:24, actual (on Wednesday) 6 total 7:19, 7:13, 6:54

Friday: scheduled 4 easy @ 9:21, actual 4 @ 8:34

Sunday: schedule 12 easy @ 9:21, actual 8:26, 8:18, 8:09, 8:14, 8:15, 8:15, 8:06, 7:51, 7:59, 7:54, 7:58, 7:43


Tuesday's run was just boring.  I ran on the TM before work so that I could walk with Adam in the evening.  Wednesday's run was great!! I actually felt like I could have gone faster.  Plus, I still had plenty of gas left in the tank when I was done.  Friday was so-so.  Another boring TM run before work.

Today's run was weird.  The first 3 miles I was about 1/10th of a mile behind a small pack of boy's cross-country runners and their coach.  They were trucking at the 8:20ish pace and I was trying desperately to not run my long run too fast.  I was still a minute off of my planned time....  I was not feeling great though.  The humidity was 100% and I knew it was not going to be a pleasant time in the woods.

Once they peeled off at around the 3.5 mile mark, I tried to maintain their comfortable pace.  But I was still feeling as though something wasn't clicking.  I hadn't settled in yet.  At the 5 mile mark, I had a Gu and within a few minutes, I started to feel instantly better.  I had some toaster waffles before I left, but apparently all this physical work I've been doing at work has really done a number to my hunger.

At mile 6 and the turn around point, I stopped my watched for a second to stretch my calves.  Then, I was off! The path had started to crowd up a bit as the morning wore on and I couldn't help but to start picking off other runners.  Besides, I started to feel better as I sped up and fell into a tempo pace.

I kept up the pace relatively happily until mile 10 when I knew I was glad I was not rounding up my 12 miler to 13.1 today.  I definitely was good to finish my 12, but there wasn't going to be much left after that.  My Garmin started getting all crazy around mile 8 because I was sweating so badly (thanks humidity) and the stupid bezel thing means that it toggles between all the screens that I don't want to be looking at.  So I basically ran the last 1/3 by feel.  I was happy that they were sub-8's, but I knew I was pushing it at the end.

This week, I have a 14-miler on the docket and the following week is a cutback week.  I don't like cutback weeks because I have a whole bunch of basically the same boring run.  I like the variety of speed, easy, long--gives me new challenges.  But I will try really hard to stick to the training schedule and hope that the training pays off.

I'm so tired right now.  It's only 8:15 and I'm contemplating going to bed.  I usually hit the hay around 11:30pm so this is highly unusual.  Too lazy to find pictures to post to my blog.  Too fuzzy-brained (work has also mentally exhausted me) to blog about anything else.

Week 1 on the road to BQ (+I have a nacho problem)

I guess it's fitting that my first week of training-to-run-a-BQ meant that it has been nearly 2 weeks since I've blogged.  In reality, I've been busy drinking beer, enjoying Loopville, and enjoying life--every time I sit down to bloop, I realize I should really go to bed!

But, I digress.  We'll get to the fun later.  The backstory of my dream of a BQ begins with the Grand Canyon.  When I was 25, I took a road trip to the Grand Canyon with my mom and sister.  I remember reading a sign about a girl who had not taken enough precaution taking a hike and ended up dying of heat stroke.  It stated that she was Boston Marathon finisher--a nod to the active types that she was in great physical shape.  I hadn't run a marathon at that point, but the story stuck with me.

Flash forward to late 2009 when I ran my first marathon in seconds over 4 hours.  I remember thinking that it was going to be pretty impossible to run 20 minutes (at the time) faster than what I had just accomplished.  I was satisfied with being a marathon finisher and happy just to cross the finish line on my own 2 feet.

I ran my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th between 3:50 to just under 4:00.  At some point, they reduced the 18-34 year old women's time to 3:35 for a BQ.

In March, I ran 3:43:18 on a hilly Atlanta marathon and felt amazing at the finish. 95% because I had smashed my PR and felt absolutely physically wonderful and 5% because I knew that I was only 8 minutes from a BQ.

When the Rehoboth Beach marathon idea started getting tossed around, I didn't even really think about the BQ thing at first.  It seemed still too fast for me and I didn't want to disappoint myself by failing.  But then I realized that I would never know until I tried.  Just like trying my first marathon, I had no idea if I could, but I didn't want to live life sitting around wondering if I had it in me, but never tried.

I still have tremendous self doubt. I will with every training run.  I will with every mile of the race.  But life will go on whether or not I BQ and if I don't, I will likely try again.

I stepped out the door Tuesday with my training plan in place.



This week's schedule:

Tuesday: 5 easy @ 9:22 Actual: 5.2 @ 8:24
Thursday: Tempo 6 (4 @ 7:56) Actual: 8:19, 7:30, 7:16,7:25, 7:23,7:53
Friday: 5 easy @ 9:22 Actual: 5 @ 9:05
Sunday: 10 LSD @ 9: 22 Actual: 10 @8:01

So.....it was a bit fast.  Oops...

In other exciting news, Adam liked the idea of a training plan to walk his 5K and so I put together one last week.  He is walking a 5K on October 6th, while I run a half-marathon.  Last week, we walked 4.9 miles over 4 days and this week, he will start his 'official' training program:




I've agreed to walk with him whenever I can, so I'll be padding my miles with some cross-training walks.  Good for our bodies and great to talk to each other without interruptions (re: healthy for marriage too!)!

What exactly have I been up to the past 12 days when I wasn't blogging?

Well, I've been busy helping my sister getting her wedding festivities underway by planning an engagement party for her:




I'm in charge of the food (duh), so I've been pouring over cookbooks and Pinterest trying to get great gluten-free ideas for the party:




I've been enjoying apples from our (finally) fruitful apple tree in the backyard (with homemade peanut butter to boot!):




And drinking lots of smoothies to compensate for all the beer from the beer challenge:




Which is just silly because I have been eating and drinking like a college kid.

So many nachos:







And burgers........




And beer......


And jalapeno infused tequila because it was on the menu....


But I've mostly been hanging out with my favorite dude, watching the Braves, Big Bang Theory, and doing fun things like ride our friend Jeff's waverunners:




All this fun can be very, very exhausting:

Summer hurrahs!

I will unofficially official start marathon training next week, so I will probably start skewing more towards boring posts about my training regimen and less about awesome life stuff.  Well, just a little perhaps.  I've been having quite the fun summer.

Let's talk about running first though.

I got some new shoes last week after dealing with some major minor foot pain that could have been brought on by my Brooks Pure Flow 2s.  I dunno.  I also could attribute to the extra speedwork in July, the sloppier form I have in hot weather, my work shoes (40 hours a week on my feet likely doesn't help), or a combination of the above.  I'm trying the Mizuno Wave Elixir 8s.  Lightweight enough, but with some stability.  And a roomier toebox for my yeti feet.



I went to the Greenway to test them out after I bought them.  Had a 12-16 miler in mind.  The Greenway was closed due to flooding.  I drove another 20 minutes to the other Greenway in the vicinity and it was also closed.  Doh!

So, to the pain cave I went.



Amazon Prime has Spirit of the Marathon free right now and I hadn't seen it.  Cue the first 1:41 of my run.  Love, love, loved it and it was really cool to watch it while I was running.  I started watching another dumb Jennifer Anniston movie Switch which was not-so-great, but kept me occupied through the final few miles.  16 overall and yes, it was quite mind-numbing even with my movies.

I took Friday and Saturday off running.  The long run padded my miles for the week and I had fun things to do instead.  But I did run 5 miles yesterday and it felt good and comfortable.

However, today was a major mojo killer.  I felt absolutely awful and I was running around 8:20 pace for the first 3 miles and it felt reallly, really hard.  The last 2 I got my pace under 8:00, but it really was motivated by the fact that a terrible thunderstorm was coming closer.  The last 2 minutes of my run were in the rain so I timed it just about perfect. This was the type of run that I need every once in awhile though to remind me that I'm not invincible.

In non-running news, I was giving my grill a good workout last week and enjoying the beer challenge.

How can you go wrong with steak?



Or a rack of ribs?




I drank beer at home (as seen in the above pictures) and at local restaurants:




In the parking lot of Turner Field ($.75 beers):



Inside Turner Field ($7.50 beers):



Unfortunately, we saw the Braves streak end.  But the hometown crew still cheers:




Last, but not least, my sister invited her future bridesmaids (including me, duh) to a brunch yesterday where she formally asked us to be a part of her wedding.  She found Barbie-esque dolls in the hair color that matched the girl and made dresses that look like the ones she wants us to wear.  Here's mine:




Happy Monday y'all!

NRR: A boy and his dog

It's been a tough year in the Liebowitz house for our furbabies.  We started out with 3 dogs and 1 cat at the beginning of 2013 and sadly are down to just 2 pups as of Monday.  The fortunate thing is that both furkids had a long and full life.  Duncan the grey tabby gave us 17 years and Josie the black lab mutt gave us 16 years.



We made a really hard decision on Monday to let Josie cross over the rainbow bridge.  She had been slowing down for well over a year and neither Adam or myself wanted to be the one to make the decision to end her life.  We had gone from helping her up and down the stairs to carrying her up and down the stairs to carrying her wherever we were.  In the past 6 months she went from having occasional accidents inside (which for most of her years never happened) to it happening multiple times a day.



The past 2-3 weeks were really hard.  She couldn't stand any longer unless you were holding her back legs.  She'd try to get herself up and fall immediately after.  It was breaking our hearts and both of us were desperately trying to pretend it wasn't happening.  Like a new puppy or a baby, I was getting up 3-4 times in the night to bring her to water, take her outside (unsuccessfully), or clean the carpet.  The last night she was with us, we had her sleep downstairs because the accidents were becoming inevitable and the hardwood was easier to clean.  I try to not dwell on the fact that her last night she was all alone--it tugs desperately at my heartstrings.


But I cannot dwell on the past.  She was lucky that Adam was a poor college kid who wanted a dog all his life and went to the pound to pick out a pup.  Josie was quite possibly the perfect poster dog for "sweet and gentle rescue" who only got ornery if play-fighting between humans was involved.  Her demeanor was happily independent and she was quite content sans toys or playtime.  Every once in a while, she'd walk by your hand dangling over the sofa arm and nudge for a pet.  She put up with her Boston Terrier sisters, first when Adam and I starting dating (I had Luxy) and later when we adopted Torrance.



As I was scrolling through old photos for this post, I let the tears shed knowing that they will come and go for awhile as I grieve.  And I'm allowing myself to be sad when it washes over me because I know that it's not all-consuming.  I've laughed plenty since Monday, the sun has risen every day, and life will carry on.  Because I'm thankful that I got spend nearly 10 years with Josie and there aren't too many sweeter things in life than a boy and his dog.

 

Loop meetup: Running with QuadraSass

I had a busy, busy, busy last few days.  Wednesday, I ran 4 easy miles after work after deciding it would be easier to do a lunch-date thing with friends rather than dinner.  Thursday, I worked, did the lunch-date thing, and came home to squeeze in 4 miles before a family obligation.  I did a 1.25 mile warm-up, 2X800 at 7:30 pace with .25 jogs and 1 mile at 7:30, and a .25 cool down.  I had just enough time to finish and take a shower, phew!

Before bed, I squeezed in a few beer squats for the August beer challenge and August squat challenge:

 

Friday, I ran out to get an engagement present on my lunch break for my sister as we were seeing her and her fiance for the first time after they got engaged.  Adam picked me up at work and we headed down to do dinner with about 20 other people for the fiance's birthday party.  It worked out that our service was pretty terrible and I never got the second beer I asked for when I was halfway done with the first:

 

We made it a relatively early night because I had big plans for the morning.

Saturday morning, the dogs started stirring just after 5am.  I took them out and decided I would just linger over getting my running gear on and having breakfast.  Around 6:15am, I headed downtown to pick up Sass/sfchas/Brian for a Loop meetup and run!

I got to his hotel around 7am and took him to the closest entrance of the Silver Comet Trail, where northern lass does most of her running.  I hadn't been on that section of the trail so we just followed the cyclists and runners walking in the same general direction out of the parking lot.  After a quick potty stop, off we went!

Other than discussing we were going to run 10 miles, we didn't really plan much of anything else for the run.  No talks of pace or negative splits or warmups or cool downs.  Fortunately, like old running buddies, we just fell into stride with one another and banged out 10 miles chatting happily.  It was the shortest 10 miles I had run in a long, long time!  We talked about running (duh), Loopsters, goals, family, work, dumb cyclists, and more running.

I think I looked at my Garmin about 4 times because I was just kind of lost in the moment of things.  Those are the best kinds of runs! We built an instant camaraderie after just an hour and 24ish minutes and it just reaffirmed the fact that Loopsters are really, really awesome.  I have some splits on my Garmin, but this was more about making what could have been an ordinary Saturday morning, extraordinary!

After our run, I started to drive us back when he realized he left his phone on top of my car.  We weren't far yet and fortunately, it just suffered cosmetic damage.  But another minute or two and it would have been toast.    When we got back to his hotel, he grabbed his wallet to get us some Starbucks--what a world-class guy!! The bookstore Starbucks was not open yet, so I drove a few blocks so he could duck in and grab us each a coffee.  He took a quick snapshot for proof before I drove off:




After my meetup, I slurped my coffee and drove home, so happy that I had decided to get up in the dark!

I went wedding venue shopping with my sister and the family yesterday afternoon followed by dinner at her fiance's house.  I had a margarita and a caprihana and then remembered that I didn't have my beer yet.  Oops.  I muscled through it though:
 

I watched half of a movie with Adam last night before I finally crashed and slept like a baby.

Today, I met my mom and sister for wedding dress shopping and at the second shop, we found 'the one'!!  We also found bridesmaid dresses that we both liked and once she gets everything squared away with the maids, we'll order those.  There were a number of sample bridesmaids dresses on sale for $10-$50 and I lucked out by finding 2 cute dresses that I can wear to my brother-in-law's wedding and perhaps the rehearsal dinner.

Definitely a successful weekend!