Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Time I Smelled Like Meat

One of my resolutions for this year was to start saving money. After posting it for all the world to see, I had a number of people who offered up suggestions on how to do just that (thanks to you all!) My running buddy, Sunny, actually came to me after this and said she had the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace CD's. Her & her husband had really great success after taking the course a few years back but since moving and gaining new debt, they definitely could use a refresher. So, we opted that every Wednesday we’d meet at hers, mine or Emilie’s house to listen to the CDs, eat food & basically gossip “as hens do” according to our husbands.

Cluck.

This last Wednesday it was at my home which meant, it was my turn to cook for the bunch of us (6 adults, 2 toddlers and one adorable 6 month old), and because we meet after work – we all try and do something fairly easy. I’m trying to eat healthier (per my Forever Fitness goals) so my initial inclination was Cauliflower Pizza (I’ll actually do a recipe for this soon, it was fantastic) that I tried out last week. But then I thought, well, if no one else likes it then I look like a douche. Nobody likes being a douche. Not even douches.

summerseve_edit

I decided to go with beef fajitas. I figure I could just throw the meat on a salad, and BOOM, healthy-fied. (I know, lame, but I’m really trying to give this eating healthy a solid go.)

I didn’t have all the necessaries for this sitting in my fridge at the house, so I had to stop at the grocery store. Because I commute every day to work (about 30 minutes) and I have to pick up Lillie, going after work was not really an option.

Also, the grocery store at 5pm is bum-fucking stupid. Ain’t nobody got time for dat.

I decided to go on my lunch break telling myself I would just throw any items that needed to be refrigerated in our community fridge for the office with a giant pink post-it that said, “BACK OFF BITCH.”

Just kidding. I would never call someone a bitch for stealing my food. I’d call them a cunt.

I made it to the store and miraculously found a parking spot, so I threw my fajita meat in my giant duffel bag purse so I wasn’t walking around campus with grocery sacks looking like a damn fool. It seemed smart at the time.

Somehow, I managed to forget during the two minutes it took me to walk to the office from my truck that I did, indeed, have fajita meat in my purse. So, there it sat. In my purse. By my desk. Smelling delicious, I assume. I say assume because I had apparently become so accustomed to the smell since it had been with me for the past 3 hours that I simply did not remove it from my purse.

At 5 o’clock as I headed out the office down to the restroom to do some very impeetant business. While sitting on my throne, I opened up my purse to grab my keys and it hit me. That glorious smell of seasoned beef (sorry non-meat eating friends, but it truly is glorious) wafted into my nostrils and into my heart. I shook my head as I zipped my purse back up and went to wash my hands.

There was a girl who was also washing her hands. And as she walked to the towels to dry them, she turned to me and said,

“I love your perfume. It smells great.”

And that, my friends, is the time I smelled like meat.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Bearathon 2013

On Saturday March 23rd I, Tamara AWESOMESAUCE Lehmann, completed my third half-marathon.

I WIN! And it was spectacular.
Spec-freaking-tacular.

If you’ve been reading along you know I’ve been a little worried about the course. Because there are hills. Like, 5 miles of hills. And these aren’t little “Oh isn’t she precious” hills. These are “Sweet baby Jesus WHY!” hills. According to my Garmin watch, Elevation Gain was 700 ft. I mean, whaaa?

Bearathon Hills GarminYou can see how my pace slowed down during the hills too according to my splits. I tried not to focus on how I was going to conquer the hills (I was already nervous enough) so about mile 4 you see my pace slowed down, it was because I was prepping to figure out miles 5-10. I went with power-walking up the hills (like seriously swinging the eff out of arms and the ol’ hips) and running down. It worked out well for me. I think doing all the stair workouts this semester with Moj really helped me. So, if you have hills in your future and no real hills to train on, I suggest stairs. They’ll kill you but totally worth it.

Bearathon SplitsMy plan going into this race was just to finish. I assumed because the course was so much harder than my other two that I’d probably finish somewhere around 3 hours and 15 minutes. So, I was pretty pumped when my official time was actually :

Official Race Time

I’m sure you remember all of my race times, (you guys are awesome friends!) but just in case you didn’t – this is the fastest I’ve ever ran 13.1 miles! Houston I finished in 3:00:27.

This means I totally PRed on the “Toughest Half in Texas” course.

Yep, you know a badass. Go ahead and let that soak in while I make an awkward race photo pose for you.

Im awkardThis particular race meant a lot to me because it felt as this was the start of my running journey when I completed the 5k portion of it last year. So, as I waited at the start line I was already tearing up before I even started running. I wanted to enjoy every moment of it. And I did. At every mile marker there was a water station, so to help Sar out with her Acts of Kindness, I clapped and cheered every one of those water stations volunteers. They didn’t have to be out there at 7am on a Saturday morning, and yet, there they were cheering us crazies on.

Speaking of Acts of Kindness, Sar was totally there cheering me on (as well as all the other runners!) around mile 11. It was definitely a huge boost since I was just coming off the hills. I also got to meet RP3 for a whole hot second. Like literally. I waved, he waved. We had a moment. Sorry Sar. It’s true.

At one point, someone chalked hopscotch out, I totally hop scotched my way into mile 9 I think. I also stopped at mile 10 I believe to let everyone know I was currently listening to Baby Got Back. I got big cheers on that one.

As I crossed the finish line, I started tearing up again and when I grabbed my medal/finisher shirt and free slice of pizza – I just sat down and soaked it in. I had finished. I had done something I never thought was possible – and I had enjoyed it.Free Pizza Alfred was out of town, Lillie was with her godparents and basically, I had no one at the finish line. But I didn’t care. I had done it and no one could take that away from me. I cried sporadically on the way home. And then when I walked in the house, I decided I wanted to record how I was feeling because I knew that the longer I waited the less emotional I would be. This feeling was something I wanted to remember.

Heads up, it’s a lot of rambling because I didn’t really give myself time to plan out what I was going to say.

Until we run again!

Training Tuesday

It's another Tuesday, so you know what that means!

This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.
 
Grab the button up above & link-up down below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training
3/19 – Nothing. I think I went to the grocery store during lunch? I don’t know.
3/20 – WHY GOD WHY workout with Moj. We did stairs again. I told her though that I wanted to take it easier since I had my half on Saturday. 55 minutes of stairs at our own pace, but we still got our sweat on. And my calves were still sore. Damn stairs.
3/21 – Rest.
3/22 – Moj puppy-dog eyed me into another workout. I told her I only wanted to do upper body because of the half. She said, “Suuuureee thing, friend!” Basically, my arms are STILL on fire from Friday. Generally when we workout we go down to the free weight area, but this time we did a lot of different machines where we would do 20 pushups or plank in between.
3/23 – BEARATHON! I have another post coming up (hopefully this afternoon) and I’ll update this to reflect that. Trust me, it deserves a post on its own. I PRed (Personal Record) on a course that had 5 miles of serious hills. I totally cried. And then I made a video. Yep, I vlogged that shit.
Edit: Bearathon Post!

IMG_0948


3/24 – Bitch please. I just ran 13.1 miles I ain’t doing nothing.
3/25 – See 3/24.

For this week, I’m just taking it easy. My hips are still a little sore from the half and to be honest, up until this morning (when I weighed myself, ha!) I had no desire to workout. I’ll do my WHY GOD WHY with Moj tomorrow (stairs!) and Thursday she’s convinced me to join her as well.

And so now, here I am. Trainingless. I don’t have another race to commit too. I’ll keep up shorter distances and continue working on my speed per my New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t not run – 1. I enjoy the shit out the way it makes me feel. & 2. I promised my friend Sunny that I’d run her first 10k with her at some point in the next few months. But I won’t have a specific training plan to follow, so everything will probably just be willy-nilly all over the place.

Ha. Willy-Nilly.
 
I’m thinking for the month of April, I may focus on my willy-nillyness & doing Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. Then in May, starting up the Insanity workouts. Insanity is intense, and the 30 Day Shred should be a good pre-cursor for that to prepare my body. By the time I’m finished with that, we should be closer to the fall where more races will definitely be happening. The closer it gets to May/June the less opportunities there are to sign up for a close race. Why? Because it’s Texas. And this shit is hot here.

Here’s to keeping up the motivation even though I’m trainingless (I have to tell you, it feels pretty awesome to not be tied down to a schedule finally!)

Friday, March 22, 2013

I just do.

So. In less than 24 hours I’ll be running the Bearathon.

IMG_0542

That’s the sign I saw for about a month every time I went into the gym. It was a nice reminder that I’ll soon be dead so I may as well give it my all. Why dead? Because look at it closely – go ahead, get your glasses on or just get all up and personal with your computer – it’s fine. No one is looking.

“Toughest Half in Texas”

Yep, it says that. And yep, I believe it. I mean, look at these hills? This is a serious situation I’ve gotten myself into. Why didn’t anyone try and talk me out of it? What friends you are. Sheesh.

Bearathon Hills

But on the serious, this race specifically has been the one I’ve been working towards this entire past year. It was always sitting in the corner of my mind, staring at me, reminding me, of something I said in passing.

You see, last year, I ran the 5k portion of it and as I finished it 9 minutes faster than my 5k time in January – it hit me. I like running. Total weirdness. After the race, I spent the day with My Emilie where we decided to stop by the Farmer’s Market which happens to be located near the end of the Half-Marathon course. So, we had to wait for people to run/walk/puke by before we could park.

I remember saying, “I don’t care how much I like to run, there’s no way I’d ever run for 13 miles.”

And we both laughed hysterically at the idea of running that far while agreeing that was pretty much for the crazies in the world. 

And much like my food post the other day where I mentioned how I explicitly remembered calling someone fat – I remember saying that like it was just 10 minutes ago. I remember me feeling that was true. I would never call myself a half-marathoner. I wasn’t capable of that.

And here I sit. Typing to you. Getting ready to run my third.

Getting ready to run the one that started it all.

I am more nervous than I have ever been before a race. It feels so surreal to think that I’ve been running for a year. A YEAR. And that I want to run for many more. When did I become such a motivated person? I’ve always just coasted through life, doing what I had to do to get by, so this. THIS. This just shows me that I should never close the door on something because I don’t think I’m capable.

When people ask me how I do it, how I run for 3 continuous hours, you know what I say?

 I just do.

And it’s true. I just keep swimming, err running. (Nemo FTW!)

More often than not while running I’m fighting a constant battle within my head,

“Do I keep going? Do I stop? Why would I stop? I’ve already gone this far. Because this is stupid. It’s your legs. Just stop if they hurt. Sheesh. But they don’t hurt that bad, do they? I could go another 3 minutes. Yeah, that’s it just another 3 minutes.”

And tomorrow, I’ll be fighting again as I lace up my shoes, wipe the sweat from my brow, hit play on my iPod, and just do.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Random Thursday: Hidden Talents

I feel like I need to apologize for a few things before you watch the video below.

1. The lighting is pretty shitty. I did what I could (9pm at night) with what I had (bathroom lighting).

2. I used my phone by holding it in front of my face. It gets kind of shaky. Please don’t throw up.

3. The very beginning is really quiet/muffled, I think it’s because I had my fingers over the microphone when I was talking. But the only thing you really miss is me introducing myself (Hi. I’m Tamara. I have a blog. Yay!) and that I’m linking up with Em, Lin & Meg for Random Thursday.

So, yeah, sorry about all that.

But at least you can lose 3 minutes of your life listening to me talk (since my “hidden talent” only takes about 10 seconds). How can that be bad, right?

And, I didn’t get Lillie in on it like I suggested at the end of the video. I was too busy feeling fancy this morning because we had to dress up for work (usually I’m in jeans and shirt). After eating really well these past couple of weeks, I can tell a difference in how this dress fits me from this time last year. I ain’t mad at it, but after taking about 30 pictures in my horrible bathroom, with sheisty ass lighting and a toddler running amuck I’ve realized I will never, not ever, be a fashion blogger.

Ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat.IMG_0932

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Just give it away…

One of my favorites, Meaghan, is hosting a spectacular giveaway with not one, but two winners! I would so be all over this if I wasn’t helping her give it all away already by donating an Easter basket full of goodies. Don’t pretend you’re better than an Easter basket. You know you loved the shit out of those growing up.

Anyway, there are a lot of great things you can win (below). I know sometimes it sucks entering these giveaways with so many people hosting that you have to follow everyone. But everyone who is contributing is pretty awesome, so it’s worth it.


Also, I have every intention of customizing this “basket” based on the winner (as long as you have a blog I can stalk, or a facebook, or a twitter…) so you never know what you’re going to get. You.never.know.

Below is Meg’s post from her blog, You’re Meaghan Me Crazy, so sign up! Only 4 days left!


I am so excited to announce my first ever giveaway!  If you follow me on twitter or instagram you might have noticed me desperately asking for people to contribute to a group giveaway in celebration of my birthday next week!

I got some pretty amazing and beautiful people to help give you awesome people some kick ass prizes!
too many nouns?
click on a beautiful face to see their blog.
and because I like to share the love we will be having two winners.

 1st Place

$20 sephora gift card from linny’s vault
easter basket full of goodies from lehmann laughter
$20 etsy gift card for jonikay52
$15 amazon gift card from maurer power
$15 starbucks gift card from you’re meaghan me crazy
2 months of gold ad space on daffodils and lace
1 month of loved ad space from you’re meaghan me crazy
5 redbox rental codes from busy as a honey bee
$115.50 value

2nd Place
$20 target gift card from sweet home amy
$20 elf gift card from you’re meaghan me crazy
$10 amazon gift card form maurer power
$10 starbucks gift card from you’re meaghan me crazy
1 months of gold ad space on daffodils and lace
1 month of liked ad space from you’re meaghan me crazy
3 redbox rental codes from busy as a honey bee
1 month of letter ad space on jo my gosh
$59.50 value

good luck!


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Training Tuesday


This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

Grab the button up above & link-up down below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training

3/12 – It was Spring Break on campus, so I took the day off to enjoy with Lillie (we did come into work for a bit to visit); I thought I might work out during her afternoon nap but I chose to clean instead. Sometimes I’d rather be clean than fit. Truth.
3/13 – Lunch with Jenna – where I made awesome healthy food choices but no working out.
3/14 – I don’t remember why I didn’t work out, but I didn’t. So, I had 3 rest days.
3/15 – My mind was not feeling any type of workout but because I knew I wasn’t going to do anything this weekend (not because I was too busy, just because I didn’t want too. Yes, sometimes I’m lazy.) so I forced myself to head to the gym. I did some hill training for 2 miles on the dreadmill.
3/16 – 3/17 – I drank too much (no kid, yay! #saidwithloveipromise) All my awesome hard work of eating well throughout the week, totally gone with a 6 pack of Bud Light. I did have a great time bowling & catching up with friends though, so it wasn’t a total loss.
3/18 – 2.25 miles on the dreadmill.

I’m keeping this week “light” because Saturday is the Bearathon. I woke up yesterday morning incredibly nervous. Like more nervous than I was with my first half. I want to think it’s because this is so close to home (only 30 minute drive) and I’m familiar with the turf, but in reality – I think I’m so nervous because I’ve been working towards this half-marathon since last year when I competed in the 5k portion of this race. Which means, not only have I been officially running for a year but I’ve also been enjoying it. I have a lot more to say on this topic, in fact, typing out this little bit is a little emotional for me already, so more on this in a future post.

Wow. Did I just get emotional about running? #whoami

In other topics, I talked yesterday about my relationship with food. Basically, it’s delicious & I have no self-control. Oops. But I’ve been making an honest effort, not just one where I pretend to do good 40% of the time & whine about nothing working, these past three weeks using My Fitness Pal (tracking everything I eat) and eating better per my goals for Abbey’s Forever Fitness Challenge.

After the Bearathon, I don’t really have anything on my race schedule. So, if you’re nearby and want a running buddy (pick me! pick me!), or you’re faraway and want/need an online supporter – let me know. #motivationstation

I love to cheer people on. It’s like my crack.

Haha, I said crack.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Eff You, Karma.

I’ve never had a great relationship with food. Or rather, I’ve never had a healthy relationship with food. I can recall having taco eating contests with my brother growing up and thinking that was perfectly sane. I remember eating entire cans of chili & packages of crackers while reading John Grisham novels in my bed. I remember being thrilled when I realized I could go out to eat for lunch and no one could tell me what I could or couldn’t have.

You see, I didn’t grow up learning about healthy food. I mean, sure, I took Home Economics and I learned about the Food Pyramid (which is no longer used, right?) I listened to the concepts, I understood that vegetables and fruits were healthy but no one ever taught me to apply that to my own life and what consequences there were if I didn’t.

As a teenager, I was naturally thin. At 5’10, 120 lbs and fairly active – it didn’t matter how many calories I consumed because those bitches were gone by nightfall. I didn’t feel like eating healthy applied to me because that was just for people with a problem.

I wasn’t one of those people.

I can clearly remember having a conversation when I was around 15 with my sister. We were talking about someone who was “fat” and I remember saying, “If I ever got that big, I’d just lose the weight. It can’t be that hard.”

You know why I remember that so clearly?

Because karma is a fucking bitch.

And because now, I’m that “big” girl and it is hard. I’m having to teach myself to make better choices and when I’ve always reached for an extra helping, or another Snickers bar – that’s really difficult. What seems to make it even harder this time around is the fact that I’m happy with my health. I’ve been running for over a year and I can clearly see marked improvements in my spirit, in my daily tasks and in how I feel every morning when I wake up.

At this point in my life I’d say 300/365 days a year when I look in the mirror, I nod my head and say, “Yep, you look good.”  The problem is that I compare that point with previous points in my life (namely right after having Lillie) and I think, wow, I’ve come a really long way and I should be proud of that.

So, I reward myself with an extra cookie. Or some ice cream. Or a giant tub of Crisco. You know, whatever helps slide that shitty food down my gullet.

It’s been a shitty cycle these past few months as I made a goal to lose 30 lbs this year. I did great in January by losing 6 lbs, but guess who gained it back in February as a “reward” for doing good? Yeah, this girl. I’ve had to really focus on what I’m doing wrong and be honest with myself. And since, I love being honest with you guys too – here goes.

I’m not eating better because I’m lazy.

There. It’s out. And it’s true.

I read enough, I know enough, I have plenty of friends who are well-versed in eating well – I just don’t want to do it. It’s going to take more time, it’s going to be painful (in the learning new things way) and there’s that possibility that I’m going to fail.

It’s really scary shit you guys. I don’t like saying I’m going to do something and then not do it. Especially when it’s my fault if I don’t. I’m having to make big changes in my life in order to succeed, it almost feels more taxing than when I first started exercising. Because exercise is an hour out of my day (occasionally more when I’m putting in more miles), but eating better, well, that’s all of my day.

Changing your life, while it may be for the better, is just generally freaky as hell. And that’s what I’m trying to do. Changing my life in the way I view food so that I feel better about myself and so that I can be a good example to my daughter. I wasn’t shown a healthy life growing up, I was taught that exercise was a form of punishment almost.

You’re 10 minutes late to PE young lady. Drop and give me 20.

I want to give my daughter more than that, and I really want to give myself more than that. And in order to do so, I have to shit or get off the pot.

Basically, stop complaining and do something.

So, here’s what I’m doing:

I joined My Fitness Pal. (Friend me here!) Basically it’s a calorie counter, where you put in your goals and it sets you up a profile. Based on your information it tells you a daily goal and when you could succeed. It’s really simple to figure out, but the best part – totally free. I also really enjoy it because unlike Weight Watchers (which I still think is an amazing program!) this helps give me a better idea of calories/sugar/fiber/carbs that are actually IN my food as opposed to some formula that calculates points. I’ve been logging my food for nearly 3 weeks now (as well as exercise) and after the first week, I could definitely tell why I didn’t lose any weight even though I was training like crazy with my running. I was eating all my calories back. Oops.  I’ve lost 4 lbs. While it’s no Biggest Loser weight loss record, I feel good about it and I feel as if I’m learning.

I’m also participating in Abbey’s Forever Fitness Challenge she put together. ForeverFitnessChallengeButtonYou can find all the details here. But it’s a 10 week challenge based on your own personal goals. If you want to run a 10 minute mile or give up smoking or eat more vegetables, it doesn’t matter as long as it matters to you. At the end of it, there will be some sort of prize but I think (hopefully) what we’ll find at the end of it is a really huge sense of accomplishment. When she initially brought it up my mind immediately went to exercising, and after a week of thinking on it – I had no new goals that I really wanted to pursue. I’m not interested (at this time) in going the full marathon distance (26.2 miles) and I’m already actively working on my speed per my own resolutions. Then, one evening as I was downing a box of Velveeta Shells and Cheese (my gawd, that stuff is glorious) I realized that my problem isn’t of the ‘making time to exercise’ nature. It’s of the ‘making time to eat better’ nature.

So, my goals are to cook at least 3 healthy meals a week and by doing so, losing 10 lbs. Last week, I made baked tilapia, cauliflower pizza (seriously making it again this week, it was amazeballs) and artichoke penne with baked chicken. It was a challenge. I had to mentally prep myself on what I was making for dinner that night so I didn’t cave and stop at Bush’s Chicken on the way home. But I did it, and I really enjoyed everything I made. Even the husband didn’t mind it too much. The kid doesn’t count because if I cover it in ketchup she’s game for anything.

And there’s me shitting & getting off the pot.

Does anyone else have a horrible relationship with food? Am I the only one whose heart beats faster when she opens a new box of Oreos? Did I just admit that out loud?

Sweet baby Jesus. Someone help me.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Training Tuesday


This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

Grab the button up above & link-up down below to let us know what’s going on for you Training Tuesday (or any day really, link up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training

3/5 – Rest Day/Fat Day. I don’t know what was wrong with me but I just didn’t have it in me to go workout on my lunch break. My heart or mind wasn’t in it, so I went and grabbed a few items from the grocery store and took a power nap before heading back to work.

3/6 – Another WHY GOD WHY Wednesday with Moj (pronounced Mow-sh). Again, we did stairs (40 minutes) and much like Tuesday I just struggled. This workout should have been easier than last week’s but my entire body felt like lead. We ran up 4 flights and then walked down, ran up & walked down. We talked a lot about food and why I wasn’t seeing progress in my weight loss endeavors that I thought I should be. Plan on seeing another #weighthate post sometimes this week. Sigh.

3/7 – Another Moj workout on the books. I hadn’t planned on working out with her, but I’m just a girl who can’t say no…

From dailymile:3.7.13 workout3/8 -  I downloaded an app called Charity Miles per Breenah’s recommendation on Twitter last week. Basically, for every mile you run (it also offers walking & biking) you earn 25 cents that goes towards a charity. It works off of GPS, so if you’re dreadmilling running, it won’t work. I figure if I’m going to run outside, I may as well do good by it. You can still listen to your own music too if you own an iPhone. (Not sure how it works with Androids.) I ran 2.51 miles and walked half a mile to make it an even 3 for my charity.

My average pace was at 12:15. I’m getting really excited at the possibility of PRing in the 5k this year. I wasn’t sure if it was even do-able when I mentioned it in my resolutions.

3/9 & 3/10 – I spent more time with Emilie at her house than I did at my own. We finished up our Twilight marathon & watched The Hunger Games again. Seriously, I am in love with J. Lawrence. Oh, wait is this about training? Yeah, none of that happened this weekend.

3/11 – I’m scheduling this post a day ahead, but the plan is to go run 10 miles in oh, about 30 minutes. I’ll be having a mom & Lillie day tomorrow and not exactly sure if I’ll have computer access. If I do, I’ll edit this portion to let you know if I did, indeed, make it the 10 miles or if I died in the middle of it. (It’s about 50/50 at this point).

Edit: I made it 10 miles! What what! I ran the first 5 outside and the second 5 inside on the dreadmill to break it up a bit and work on speed with my already fatigued legs. I figured it would be a good way to mentally work up to those hills in just 11 days. And trust me, I was over it by mile 7.
I’m really proud of my first 5. That’s the fastest I’ve ever ran that far. (Does that make sense?)
5 miles With the exception of Mile 2, all under 13. I don’t know if I’d be able to sustain that through 13 miles but I think based on this and based on the Zoo Stampede that I did last year that goes through the same hills, I’m going to shoot between 13:00 and 13:30 for each mile. Fingers crossed.

This will be my last long run before the Bearathon on the 24th. Next weekend, I think I’ll knock it down to 5 miles for my long run (in my original training plan I had 9 miles this week and 10 miles next) to keep my legs rested. I know the hills are going to tear me up during it, so I want to go into it as refreshed as I can. Like I’ve mentioned before, my goal for this half-marathon is to not PR but just finish to say “I fucking did it.” It was this time last year when I really started enjoying running & it’s kind of a full-circle thing at this point.

Future Training

Once I’m done with the Bearathon I do not have another half-marathon in my books. I don’t intend to have one either (but who knows with me) since I want to really focus on my shorter distances and building up speed. I’m also planning on jumping into Insanity again. If you’ve been around for a while you may remember that I did Insanity for a month with great results but had to quit early to focus on my running goals during the last half of the year.

Have any of you done Insanity, or a similar program? Would you be interested in posts/vlogs about it?

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Gut Pak Run

Here’s the dealio – I love to run. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I step foot over that finish line and think “Damn, I actually did it.” But sometimes, you just need a little more than a finish line to uh, whet your appetite.

Like, I don’t know, maybe running a mile, stopping to power house chow down a Frito pie on steroids and then running that mile back to the finish line.

Lucky for me, I’ve found that something more…

Hello, Gut Pak Run!

Yummo! 

Baylor’s Freshman Class Council & the Baylor Triathlon Club put this on with the benefits proceeding Mission Waco. I think this may be the second year they’ve put this on. I didn’t participate last year because I could barely walk a mile at this time without feeling as if my lungs were going to explode, so I certainly wasn’t going to upset my stomach too.

But this past year has been good to me running wise and I figured if I can run 13 miles, then surely I can do this. Right?

Seemed like sound logic at the time.

Anyway, I don’t mind doing races alone, but this seemed like something you do with a friend. So, I called up my recent go-to running partner, Sunny (who I’ve helped convince to train for a 10k – it wasn’t hard, she’s one of those super well-driven go-getter type of people) and she immediately said “Heck yes I want in!” God, love her.

Since, she clocks 9 minute miles & I sooo do not we talked about our plan of attack on the way to the race. We agreed to do the first mile on our own time, eat [which means, she was able to actually enjoy her Gut Pak whereas I devoured mine not wanting to slow us down anymore] and do the last mile back together. Gut PaksBecause I knew it was just a mile to Vitek’s from Baylor Campus (I’m not belittling anyone by saying ‘just a mile’ am I? I only say that because it’s how I get through my long runs/half-marathons. It’s just a mile. It’s just a mile. It has no reflection on you, I promise. You’re a fucking badass. Truth.), I tried to push myself hard to get there as fast as I could. I knew I wouldn’t win, but like with all my races my goal is to just not be last.

I’m such a high-achiever.

 Gut Pak Run Splits

I think my fastest mile this past year has been like 11:54 – so I’ll definitely take the 11:47 for avg pace in the first mile. Since we had to sit down and eat our food, it’s kind of off for mile 2 and then I forgot [again] to cut the watch off as I hit the finish line. Oops. But you get the point.

My official time was 29:21 with an average pace of 12:46 per the results website.

We didn’t get to witness anyone throwing up but I’m about 95% positive that I literally ran over someone’s puke about a quarter mile in on the way back to the finish line. Sunny & I were chatting, laughing, talking about how it was starting to hit us and then bam, I look down and my feet are running through an burnt orangey mixture, much like the color of a Frito pie.

I seriously considered taking a picture for a split second to blog, but my better senses got a hold of me and I held off.

You’re welcome.

Overall, this was a really fun race. There were families with kids, people who walked & fun costumes. I think the guy who won was wearing Superman clothes? And I’m pretty sure I saw a guy in a bacon costume with his buddy who was an egg.

It has cheap registration ($20 for the small gut pak) with a super cute finisher t-shirt. We had to get back to the kiddos so we didn’t stick around long after we finished but they had music & snacks at the finish line (not that we would have eaten the snacks, I mean, hell we just tore up some Gut Pak’s.) And as we crossed the finish line someone on a microphone called out our names. Cheesy, but it totally rocked the finish line for me.

So, friends, gear up and start preparing because I’ll definitely be recruiting friends for this next year!

Until we run again!

IMG_0757

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Training Tuesday


This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

Grab the button up above & link-up down below to let us know what’s going on for you Training Tuesday (or any day really, link up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training

2/26 – 3 miles. 42 minutes. I had absolutely no desire to run. In situations like that when my mind is working against me & I’m having a hard time getting going I count on social media. If I post it out loud, typically I’m going to do it. I walked a lot during these miles, but it helped get my butt in gear for the rest of the week.

2/27 – WHY GOD WHY Wednesday with Moj. Another great way to get going is to have someone to work out with. If I didn’t have Moj, I probably would have avoided it. We did 45 minutes of stairs at our own pace but we either used 4 lbs hand weights or a resistant band at the same time to get an upper body workout. My triceps & shoulders burned like a mofo. We followed it up with a 100 push-ups. YES. You read that right. I did 100 push-ups and not one of them was from my knees. I had to take them 10 at a time, but they were done. BOOM.

2/28 – 2.5 miles. 31 minutes. Just running to shake out my legs from Wednesday’s workout.

3/1 – I had planned on working out with Moj again for a tabata workout, but something came up & she couldn’t do it. I had packed a pair of shorts so I couldn’t run [chub rub!]. Instead I hung out on the stationary bike – 7 miles in 31 minutes. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I got my heart rate up. Anyone know anything about biking?

3/2 – Gut Pak Run. I’ll do a follow-up post about this tomorrow. It’s 2.2 miles. You run to a BBQ joint, eat food & run back. My friend Sunny & I signed up for it just as something fun to do and to see if we’d poop or puke ourselves. Spoiler Alert: We didn’t.

3/3 – I think I mentioned last week that I kind of suck at doing my long runs on Sunday this training go around. I just don’t want too. So, I didn’t. We went to church, then to My Emilie’s for lunch & a mini-Twilight marathon. We watched the first two movies before I had to suck it up and go back home to do our always multiplying laundry.

3/4 – With the Bearathon only a couple weeks away [eek!] I opted to take off work a little early & head to the gym to make sure I got my miles in. I had planned for 8, but got out of the office a little later than I anticipated. I made it to 7 before I had to pack up and go get the kiddo. My pace was 13:31 for it, which is usually where I sit when it comes to long runs. I’ll take it. With this upcoming half & the hills of death attached to it, my goal is to simply finish it. I’m not going into it with high hopes of a PR. If it happens, YAY! If it doesn’t, YAY!

Okay, link-up and let us know how your training is going!