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!

(Mostly) NRR: my sister is getting married!

I don't know that anyone has been reading my blog for the 12 years I've been writing one, but safe to say life has changed a bit since I first started writing.  It has mostly transitioned into more about running and less about life.  However, sometimes those life things are way more interesting than my running.... like my sister is engaged!

For any weirdo that just likes to read about running, feel free to skip to the end where I have diligently included my running stats.

When you grow up with a sister relatively close in age (she's 3 years younger than me), it's like having a built in best friend all the time.




Even though we were lucky that there were other girls in our neighborhood to play with, we spent many, many, many hours playing Barbies, Cabbage Patch Dolls, "flower shop" (sorry mom), riding bikes, playing in the pool, etc.




The teen years separated us a bit, but by college, we started to appreciate each other a bit more.  She studied abroad for a semester in France and my now-husband Adam and I met her for a 10 day tour of France, England, Belgium, and the Netherlands.  We lucked out and got some fabulous snowy pictures of pictures in Paris:




The summer after she graduated, I started to get really worried that she was going to find a job somewhere far away from Atlanta.  I had big dreams that our kids would grown up knowing their cousins and we'd have a fun little lake house to bring our families to on weekends and holidays.  We took a trip with mom across America that summer of 2007, stopping in New Orleans:




And eventually making our way to the Grand Canyon:





It was (one of) many fantastic adventures we've been lucky to share and I couldn't imagine seeing her for only a few brief periods each year.

Fortunately, she found a job in Atlanta! Yippee!

That fall, I got engaged and over the course of the next year, she performed all the maid of honor duties without any bellyaching.  She diligently kept notes of all the gifts at all the showers:




And was the person I spent the night with at a hotel room on the eve of my wedding day.  We giggled like we were kids again and if I had any nerves, they were long forgotten by the all the fun we were having.




We have continued to share our love of travel together and even continued our brother in the fun too!  The 3 of us took mom to Alaska for her 60th birthday a few years ago.

Taking a pit stop at Safeco Field in Seattle before the boarding the cruise ship:




The past 2 years, we've taken Caribbean cruises together along with a small group of friends.  We share a love of mojitos and striking up conversation with strangers:




But the best part about a sister is that hanging out means that we can just be ourselves.  There is no pretense, no obligations, and I know that we are there for each other no matter what.  I'm not sure we've grown up too much over the years:




But I do know that we always have a good time!

And oh yeah, that guy she's engaged to? He's pretty awesome as well.  I've truly never been happier for her--I think this is the flood of emotion my parents felt when I told them I was getting married??  He definitely makes her happy and is sweet without being sappy.




We will be going wedding dress shopping in the couple of weeks and I just cannot wait to see what my favorite shopping partner happens to choose as 'the dress'.  Because I'm sure there will be some pretty terrible duds in the mix which I'm already laughing about now....




Congrats Tasha and Tim!!!


And if you just care about the running, I'll throw you a bone::


After 6 miles last Monday and 10 on Wednesday, I just did 4 milers on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.  It had been awhile since I'd had a 5-a-day week, but it was very manageable.  The 4 milers take just over 30 minutes so it's easy to squeeze that in after work and not feel too beat down when I get home.

Thursday was short and sweet with all my splits under 8:00mm.  I was exhausted from an extra long and sweaty day at work, but somehow I pulled out a good run.  7:59, 7:56, 7:56, 7:17

Saturday went okay.  I had a significant amount of foot pain all day and eased into my run.  Running made the pain go away briefly, but I knew something wasn't quite right.  8:06, 8:15, 8:15, 7:52

Sunday was strange.  I had a princess shift at work (4.5 hours, yippee!) and went running at 4pm.  In July. In Georgia.  It actually wasn't too bad with the shade cover from the Greenway, but it was still hot.  I tend to have Garmin issues when I'm sweating all over the place and I ran 4.2-4.3 miles, but Garmin logged me at exactly 4.  So I am pretty sure that the average and splits are a little off.... but my splits were 8:19, 8:58, 7:49, 7:46

Today I started out feeling as though I had cement blocks taped to my legs.  For about 2 miles, I was doing the short-step shuffle and telling myself to just not look at my Garmin because it wasn't about speed in the 91* real feel.  Once I got to the turnaround point at 3.85 miles, I looked and was shocked that I was close to 8:00mm! I took water at 4.65 miles and peeked and stayed away from looking at my pace until the last 2 miles.  I pushed it at the end, but somehow, I was feeling really, really good and strong. 8:10, 8:03, 7:55, 7:57, 7:55, 7:44, 7:43, 7:30.

Okay August, I'm ready for you!!!

Boobies and beer and big ideas

Monday, I packed my running gear up just like usual before I headed to work.  As I started to change in the bathroom after work, I realized that I had forgotten my sports bra. Doh!  I had 2 options at this point: Run in my regular bra or go home and run on the treadmill (since I'd have to spend another 30 minutes in the car if I wanted to go back to the Greenway).

I really wanted to run outside so I took a short jog around the parking lot to ensure that I wasn't being entirely ridiculous.  It seemed okay so away I went.  Fortunately, my boobage is minimal so I barely noticed a difference.  Not that I would ever purposefully do it again, but it wasn't too terrible.  I focused my efforts on getting the run done and had a nice little tempo effort.  Splits: 8:00, 7:54, 7:54, 7:53, 7:47, 7:42.

Today, I enjoyed a day off of work and decided to do a 10-miler.  I should have got going right at 8:00am, but I had to have my coffee, linger over the newspaper, eat some cereal....all of a sudden, it was 10:00am.  It was not too terrible today, but I am definitely ready for capri weather. Temps were actually in the low 80s and the humidity was around 70%.  I got lucky with cloud cover.

I did the 10 in 1:20:56, an 8:05 average.  Splits were: 8:13, 8:03, 8:15, 8:05, 8:15, 8:08, 8:04, 8:20, 7:42, 7:48

In somewhat running related news, I became intrigued by Whole9/Whole30 after Jenster posted her successes on Loopville.  I did some research and am still on the fence about the whole thing.  Having an eating-disordered past and a super picky husband makes me think that I should perhaps be a little more lenient than the instructions allow.  I know that they stress you shouldn't cheat in any way, but I think a restrictive diet could potentially be a slippery slope.

I mean, I do eat pretty healthy, contrary to many of my postings.  Ridiculous food usually makes for better pictures just for the wow factor, but healthy food can be pretty too:





The other downside to the plan is that I'd have to give up beer:



Which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I know.  Heck, if/when I ever get preggo, I'm going to have to stall my beer list for 9 months.  What is this beer list, you ask?

My local watering hole chain (Taco Mac for the Atlanta peeps) has a beer program that keeps track of all the beers you drink at their establishment.  My list happens to be pretty long because I've been regularly going for quite some time and I really like trying new beers.




That's my 30-in kitchen island and my current list.  Here's the close-up:




Geez, maybe I should give up beer for a month....

I wouldn't have to lie absolutely flat to take bikini Instagram photos of myself:




Oh, who am I kidding? I still would....

Anyway, I planned a week's worth of meals to see if I could think of 21 different options.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Breakfast	Omelet with tomatoes, peppers, and onions	Sausage, bananas, sweet potatoes	Breakfast burrito with lettuce, eggs	Eggs over easy, berries	Sausage omelet, berries	Bacon, grapefruit, nuts	Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, melon
Lunch	Turkey lettuce wrap, carrots+celery, seasonal fruit	Leftover steak fajita salad	Mock chicken salad with avocado, seasonal fruit	Turkey over greens, almonds, sweet potato	Leftover pot roast	Turkey wrapped peppers and cucumbers, fruit	Tomatoes stuffed with tuna and celery, olives, dates
Dinner	Steak fajita salad with greens, tomatoes, peppers, avocado	Grilled chicken, zucchini +onion skewers, tomatoes with balsamic	Pork tenderloin, broccoli, sweet potatoes	Pot roast with carrots, onions, celery, beef broth	Grilled lamb steaks, grilled root vegetables	DATE NIGHT	Meatballs with tomato sauce, green salad, riced cauliflower

Yah, I feel hungry when I look over it...  So I'm going to mull on it for awhile.  I feel this way about ultras.  I get all gung-ho about it because it sounds so awesome and everyone loves it and I could do it too!! But then I remember that I really like 3 rest days a week and I really like Oreos and maybe I'll do it when I grow up.

Lastly, what's a Quadracool post without some cute Boston Terrier pictures?

Like Torrance showing me her frog-legs:





And Torrance telling Luxy a secret: