Month: February 2014

Never Two Without Three

It’s been a rough couple days for me over here in sunny SB. I’m still resting my knee (I seriously feel like I haven’t really run in forever), and hoping I can run the San Diego Half a week from Sunday. My knee started popping and cracking today (which is new), but for the most part it’s feeling better except some pain here and there. Jeremy and I have to be out of our apartment tomorrow night, so tonight is our last time sleeping here (which is so bittersweet). We’re going to open a nice bottle of wine we’ve been saving, and sit on the floor and have a picnic.

Moving break snack on the floor.

We’ve been moving stuff into our storage unit the last couple days, and yesterday as I was helping Jeremy unload something out of his truck, the window on the back of the camper shell swung down and crushed my right thumb. I slammed my left thumb in a car door last year, and I can’t believe I did it again. I couldn’t use my right hand at all for the rest of the day yesterday, and the pain woke me up a few times last night. Luckily it feels a little better today (it’s just all black and blue now), but of course there had to be one more injury to round out the trio. When I got up from bed this morning, all of a sudden I felt a shooting pain in my neck, and I have had a stiff neck all day and can’t turn my head at all. It’s so painful. It’s really a great combination: hurt knee, crushed thumb, and stiff neck. While moving. UGH. It’s also supposed to rain the next couple days (which is SO GREAT for Southern California), which makes everything a little more complicated when moving.

Constantly adding body parts to the list of things I need to ice.

I feel like I’ve been a debbie downer lately, and I let myself get pretty frustrated the past few days. But a couple good things have happened too. Jeremy and I went over to my parents’ house today and were surprised to see my brother, sister-in-law, and their two boys there (one’s almost 3, the other is 8 months), and it was so nice to see them. They used to live next door to my parents, but moved about 45 minutes away almost a year ago. I get to see them every couple weeks, and it’s always a bright spot in my day. I’m really going to miss them. Another thing is that I was reading the Cork Marathon FAQs the other day and saw that you are not able to transfer between the full and half marathon after you register. I pretty much panicked because I need to be able to have the option to do the half, after how my last month of training has been. I sent an email to the event manager, and she wrote me back quickly. She said that since my family was traveling so far to attend the race, they would make an exception for me if need be. I was so incredibly relieved, and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I really really still want to do the full, but knowing that I have the option to switch to the half makes me feel a ton better. I just have to tell her sometime before the beginning of May.

Here are a few more highlights from the last few days:

Breakfast.

!!!

Got a couple decent pictures out of the Mermaid Series Half Marathon.

I ran! And Other Happenings

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Well, I’m pretty thrilled because I went out for a nice and easy three-mile run earlier today to see how my knee felt, and it went better than I expected. I could feel the uncomfortableness occasionally (it’s not really sharp pains, just dull pains surrounding the kneecap), but for the most part it was smooth sailing. If I ran over a curb and used my left leg to jump up on it, I did experience some pain, but not too bad. This makes me SO happy. I knew I shouldn’t push it so I tried to go slowly (although it did seem like the slower I ran, the more pain I felt), but it was hard not to sprint since I was feelin so good. I did some strength training when I got done, and I’m going to ice and stretch tonight. I’ll probably rest again tomorrow, but I’m feeling hopeful that I can run my half in two weeks. Fingers crossed!

Color coordinating.

I’ve been reading about runner’s knee, and the symptoms sound the same as mine. I remembered recently that when I was growing up, if I crouched down and tried to stand back up quickly, sometimes one of my knees would dislocate and it was super painful. I’d have to sit down and kind of wiggle my leg back into place and stand up slowly. This pain could be stemming from that, or just that my kneecaps have some issues. Rainy Writer let me know that there was a series on runner’s knee being written on Run Oregon blog, which was really helpful. I’m remaining optimistic that this won’t be a huge issue for me going forward, and that with strength training and taking good care of my body, I’ll be able to run forever.

Moving Along

On Thursday, Jeremy and I went out to lunch with a few coworkers (one of which was my brother), and we went to a restaurant at the Santa Barbara Harbor, which is always a treat. The running path I use for 98% of my runs goes by the harbor, and I love looking at the sailboats with the mountains in the background. SB sure is pretty.

On Friday, Jeremy and I had to get ready for the garage sale we had with our neighbors. We live in a complex comprised of two duplexes, and we have become really close with our neighbors. It was a lot of fun (not just because of the mimosas we started drinking at 10am), and we had a dinner all together that night also. The sale went on both Saturday and Sunday, and Jeremy and I sold a TON of our stuff. It was definitely successful.

Best neighbors in the universe.

Garage saling.

After the sale was over on Saturday, Jeremy and I headed to the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens for an event a coworker organized. It was a beer festival showcasing local breweries, and a specific beer was selected to complement each section of the gardens. It was really interesting, and a lot of the flowers were beginning to bloom so it was beautiful.

Learning about the redwoods.

Local beer + redwoods.

Magic hour at the Botanic Gardens.

Food was desperately needed, and fish tacos did the trick.

The packing up of our apartment is coming along nicely (we have to be out by Friday), and I feel like we are pretty far ahead of where I normally am when I move (I notoriously leave everything to the last minute… something about the pressure makes me work faster). We can start moving stuff into our storage unit tomorrow. Which means that this is all really happening. And it’s happening VERY SOON. It is insane. I haven’t really let myself realize that we’re leaving town a week from Friday for who knows how long. It could be six months, could be a year, could be longer. I’m going to miss Santa Barbara and my family so much (I always do), but I’m extremely excited to get some adventures in. It’s been way too long.

A Bump in the Road

I’m kind of at a loss and not sure what to do. My left knee is confusing me. About a month ago when it started hurting after a particularly jump-y, hard bootcamp class, any pain subsided within a few days of rest and I ran my half marathon a couple weekends ago pain-free. I honestly haven’t done much in the way of running since then (almost two weeks) except a couple shorter runs and one long run last weekend. It’s not that the pain is severe and causing me to limp, and it’s not always there. It occasionally hurts when I stand up if I’ve been sitting for a long time, or randomly throughout the day. I’d say 60% of the time there’s no pain. But it’s that 40% that has me pretty worried. I tried to think about things that have changed over the last month or two that could have caused this, and over Christmas there was a month-and-a-half-long period of time where I didn’t do any strength training. But after almost a year of strength training, I don’t think that too much muscle would be lost just in that time. I’ve given myself plenty of rest, I eat very healthy, I recover properly. I don’t eat meat (except seafood), but I make sure to get enough protein. I had blood tests last year and they came out stellar. This is why I’m confused. I’ve gained a little weight since I got married in June (about 6 pounds) and maybe that has something to do with it, but it’s not a huge amount. Maybe the muscles in my quads/glutes aren’t as strong as they should be and there was too much pressure on my knees. Maybe my form wasn’t perfect when I was doing all those jumping/burpee exercises over and over in bootcamp. Or maybe I’m just overthinking it.

I have the San Diego Half Marathon on March 9, that I really want to run. We have already gotten a hotel room downtown SD and my mom is going to drive down to watch me race. It’s still two and a half weeks away, and even after resting a week, I should still be able to do it. I’ll play it by ear, but I’m remaining hopeful.

I’m also supposed to be training for a damn marathon. These weeks are base-building weeks in my training plan and since I have a pretty good base built up, I hope it’ll be fine, but the more I don’t run, the more I know I shouldn’t push it and try to run my first full marathon (that my entire family has planned a trip to Ireland around… ugh).

Sometimes I honestly feel like crawling in a corner and crying; it’s just so frustrating to work hard and see yourself improving, only to have a setback. It’s okay though, I’m trying to stay positive and work on strengthening my leg muscles and glutes, ice, foam roll, stretch, etc.

My knee was feeling okay yesterday morning so I went out and tested out three slow miles. Sometimes I would feel the pain, sometimes I wouldn’t. Around mile two it pretty much went away completely. I did some stadium stairs at the local city college, with no pain going up, but with pain going down the stairs.

Not a bad place to do stadium stairs.

Other, Better News

I finally got a hair cut! I hadn’t cut it in a year, and it was definitely time. My hair stylist cut off a little more than I was expecting, but I’m so happy with it. All in all, there’s about 7-8 inches gone. It is thrilling to know that I can wear a tank top to run and not have the hair from my ponytail get caught in the FRONT of my armpits.

Before

After!

Short ponytail!

I also had a pretty exciting mail day the other day:

I ordered the Mizuno Wave Creation 15 and the Brooks Glycerin 11 to see which ones I liked better. Well, I tried on the Glycerin in size 10 at the local running store and they were too small so I ordered them in size 10.5, which is waaay too big. I had this problem with the Brooks Adrenalines in the past, which is unfortunate because I hear Brooks shoes are great. I wore the Mizunos yesterday and I really liked them. They fit perfectly, they are light, it’s a bonus they are cool-looking, and I am happy with them. I need to test them out more (whenever my knee feels better) to really get a feel for them, but I was happy after yesterday’s trial. Like I said in an earlier post, I’ve been told to get stability shoes for pronation the last few times I’ve gone to the running store, but I went on Friday and the lady working told me I tend to supinate and need neutral shoes. I’m hoping this is a breakthrough because I have never loved any pair of shoes I’ve worn in the past; each one has caused me problems.

Maybe, just maybe, a match made in heaven.

Has anyone had knee pain in the past and can offer up some advice? Thank you!

Lately, In Pictures

It rained recently and I got to wear my new rain boots. I was very excited.

Jeremy and I headed to the Patagonia headquarters in Ventura to scope out backpacks and rain jackets.

Jeremy found a backpack.

Downtown Ventura.

Trying on all my adventure gear.

We made tofu tostadas one night for dinner.

Recovering after my long run with compression socks, foam rolling and frozen corn.

Valentine’s Day consisted of this pizza and lots of red wine.

We took a picnic to the beach yesterday, and I got some serious reading done.

Sushi on the beach.

Walking around our neighborhood the other evening at magic hour.

This popcorn was delicious.

I love miniature things. These lemons were too much.

I’m in the middle of trying to get my French citizenship, so my mom, grandma and I drove to LA today to go to the French embassy. It was closed.

Crazy fog driving to LA this morning.

My second home.

I didn’t have a dog with me, but I appreciated this dog drinking fountain/treat dispenser all the same.

Fanciest Coffee Bean I’ve ever seen.

I took my mom and grandma to Real Food Daily in Santa Monica for lunch. I ordered the Mediterranean Bowl: Wild arugula, heirloom tomato and avocado in lemon herb Za’atar dressing with cucumber kalamata salsa, white bean basil salad, red quinoa tabouli, almond feta & whole wheat Za’atar flatbread. It was SO GOOD.

Driving through Malibu Canyon on our way home today.

Leaving Santa Monica.

Driving home on Highway 1.

Hope everyone’s week got off to a nice start!

Runner’s World Challenge

Hello!

Well, I officially completed my first week of marathon training. My plan called for short runs Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, then a long run yesterday and a short one today. Since I ran a half last Saturday and was sick in the beginning of the week, I took it easy and didn’t do all the runs on the plan. I think this was a smart decision on my part. Yesterday’s ten-miler began a little rocky, and by mile four I was thinking maybe I would turn around and only do eight miles. I continued on, and when I got to five miles to turn around, endorphins kicked in and I felt really great. I tried a new gel – Clif Shot mocha with caffeine – at mile five, and ate the whole thing. I drank a little too much water and got a bit of a stomach cramp, but it went away quickly, and the rest of the run was issue-free. Mile nine was even my fastest. I have been reading a bit about running cadence, so I experimented with counting my steps, to see where I was at. I was running at about 160 strides per minute, which is pretty common. Lots of articles (here’s an example) recommend 180 steps per minute, so I tried to increase my strides to hit that. Counting my steps was actually pretty fun and a great distractor. I usually am only thinking about what my arms are doing, so it was a nice change to focus on something else.

There’s one thing that worried me on my run yesterday. My left knee pain has come back some, and it bothered me a bit in the first half of my run, but then I felt nothing the second half. It’s a little tender today, and I iced it and foam rolled yesterday. It started hurting me after a bootcamp class a few weeks ago when we did a lot of jumping, so I stopped going to bootcamp for the time being, and I realized that I haven’t gone to yoga in a couple months. It could just be that I wasn’t stretching some of the muscles in my leg enough and it put a strain on my knee muscles. It could also be my shoes, I went and tried on some new running shoes on Friday at the local store here, and the lady working told me that I supinate, and need neutral shoes. This is different than every other time I’ve been fitted at a running store, and that’s why I’ve been wearing stability shoes. I ordered two pairs of neutral shoes online and will test them out next week. I’m just hoping so badly that my knee issues will go away soon, I’m looking forward to getting into full-on marathon training mode.

After making the big decision to register for a full marathon, and then spending two weeks obsessing about which one to choose, the next step was deciding on a training plan. I have used Hal Higdon plans for past half marathons, and considered using one of his marathon plans, but I wanted to try something new. I saw a screen shot on STUFT Mama of the Runner’s World Challenge plan, and it included an email sent out every night with a detailed description of what the next day’s training consisted of. I really liked this, and thought it would be a great motivating tool over the next few months. After a little confusion about how the Runner’s World Challenge worked, I finally have it all sorted out. Once you purchase a plan (there are lots to choose from), this is what is included:

Four months access to the RW Personal Trainer interactive training log
Personal coaching from RW’s nutrition, training, and injury-prevention experts
Motivation e-mails from Chief Running Officer Bart Yasso
Runner’s World Challenge technical T-shirt
RW’s Complete Book of Running
A watch
Online access to the Runner’s World Challenge community, where you can connect with other runners who are taking the Challenge

I didn’t realize that in order to receive the daily emails and have access to the training log, I had to create an account on Training Peaks and load the plan into the calendar. Luckily, the person I was emailing with at RW did that for me and got me all set up.

I received my shirt, watch and book a few weeks after purchasing the plan.

As far as choosing which marathon plan, I had to decide between these two:

BEGINNERS

Ideal candidates: First-time marathoners, and runners who have at least one year of experience, and run three to four times per week on average.
Weekly routine: 3 days of rest, 4 days of running
Weekly mileage: 18-36 miles
Long runs: start at 8 miles; peak at 20 miles
Speed work: strides, marathon goal-pace runs (MP)

FIRST-TIMERS MARATHON PLAN

Ideal candidates: First-time marathoners, and runners who have at least one year of experience, and run three to four times per week on average. For more experienced runners who have completed at least one half-marathon.
Weekly routine: 2 days of rest, 5 days of running
Weekly mileage: 25-42 miles
Long runs: start at 10 miles; peak at 20 miles
Speed work: Yasso 800s, marathon goal-pace runs (MP)

I like only taking two rest days per week, so the First-Timers plan sounded good to me. After looking at the long weekend runs on this plan, however, it has three 20-mile runs included, the first one being in about four weeks, which I think is a little too soon for me. The Beginners plan gradually works its way up until 20 miles, and the 20-miler happens three weeks before the marathon. I think I may follow the First-Timers plan for the weekday runs, and then the Beginners plan for the weekend long run.

All in all, I’m happy I chose this whole system, and look forward to getting into it!

Running the Neighborhood

Happy Wednesday!

I’m finally feeling better. This cold was nasty but short, thankfully. I don’t like to take any kind of medicine unless it’s 100% necessary, so I just rested up, drank some green juice, got some vitamin D, and tried to sleep it off. And that seemed to do the trick.

How to kick a cold.

Jeremy and I finished up our last week at the office last week (by working 38 hours in three days, it was intense), and now we have begun getting prepared for our departure. We are still going to be doing some work, we can just do it remotely. There are three apartment viewing appointments in the next few days, so we spent yesterday cleaning up and organizing some things around here. I wanted to go for a run since I wasn’t sore one bit from Saturday (I was pretty happily surprised. Hydration, stretching and compression socks work wonders), although after each race so far the top of the second toe on my right foot always hurts so badly. I think I get a blister under my nail or something. It’s black so I guess I’ll lose the nail soon, I just wish it didn’t hurt so bad to the touch. I hope it’s my shoes or something and it can be solved. I decided to run around my neighborhood since it’s pretty much all hills and because the course was so flat on Saturday, I figured I could work some other muscles. I only did a few miles and took it nice and easy, but it was very enjoyable. My toe hurt even more last night though, so I guess I’ll rest today, and fingers crossed it will feel better tomorrow (I’m really itching to get this marathon training underway, I’m getting a little nervous about it). Here are a few shots from my run yesterday.

The Mission.

Spring!

Tried out some new Mizuno shorts… they are much shorter than my normal Lululemon ones I wear all the time, but I liked them.

My ‘hood.

Jeremy and discovered this really great deal at Whole Foods where you can get a tofu entree and two sides from the prepared salad bar for only $6. It’s so much food, and it’s always super healthy, and we’re kind of hooked.

It originally came with three pieces of tofu but I ate one immediately.

One more note, I have been a Zappos fan for years, but I recently ordered a running cap and some insoles, and they came in the most gigantic box ever. After opening the huge box, there was another big box containing the hat that took up one little corner. It was so excessive! I still love them though.

Come on, Zappos.

How’s your week going?

Mermaid Series Half Marathon Recap

Like I said in my last post, I am definitely not feeling well. I felt sort of bad on Friday, but I figured it was allergies (I couldn’t possibly get sick twice in two months, right??). Friday night I was still feeling bad and Jeremy and I were at my grandma’s house in Pacific Beach, San Diego. The main reason I decided to run this race is because I am registered for the San Diego Half Marathon on March 9, but we were originally going to be gone traveling by that time. I found out about the Mermaid Series Half Marathon online, and it seemed like a good race to run that my grandma could be at. My grandma is one of my favorite people in the entire universe, and we have been close my whole life. She was able to watch me finish the SD Half last year and loved it so much, I wanted to make sure there was another race she could be at. We’re now planning on leaving for our trip the day after the SD Half, so I’ll just be running that one too (my mom is coming to that one also, so that’s exciting!).

Anyway, I ended up being up all night Friday night, and I probably got 1-2 hours of sleep. I knew I definitely had some kind of bug. A year ago, I’m pretty sure I would have just stayed home. But I decided to suck it up and brave the race, and I’m proud of myself for doing so. We left my grandma’s house at 6:30am (a little later than we had planned, but it was only about a 7-minute drive to the starting line), and that was a huge mistake. There was a gigantic line of cars on the freeway waiting to get off the exit, and by 6:55, we were just getting off the freeway (the race started at 7), and still had a couple miles to go until the parking area.

Right before I jumped out of the car.

At this point, I was stressing out. I was thinking maybe they would delay the start of the race because there were still hundreds of people in their cars. But then I realized that the 5K and 10K started later than the half, and all these people were probably parking for those races. I saw a girl with a bib get out of the car and start running, so I did the same. WELL, this was the worst part of the day. It turned out to be a mile from the starting point, and I booked it the whole way (I could hear the start of the race when I was running), and when I finally got to the starting line, I just ran over it and kept running and that’s how I started the race. So, really, I ran 14.1 miles or thereabouts (which is actually a PD for me, so yay), which meant that I was pretty worn out by mile 12 in the race.

The Course

To my great surprise, I actually felt okay while I was running (thank you, body). The course was nice and flat, and the scenery was pretty. I do 98% of my training runs along the ocean, so running by the water feels right to me. This course took place in Mission Bay, and it was a beautiful morning. I wore my Nike pullover so I could protect my neck from the cold air, and I was definitely too hot by mile 10, but it wasn’t too bad. It was also supposed to be cloudy and 55 degrees, and it turned out to be super sunny and about 60 degrees. There was not much in the way of crowd support, but it was a pretty low-key race and that was fine. I do have to say that there were lots of aid stations and they pretty much all had Gatorade, which I really appreciated. There were a lot of runners with tutus (this was a women-only race), and I saw one girl with long red hair with mermaid-looking running tights on, and she looked like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and that was pretty cool. My legs felt good until about mile 10 when I thought I started slowing a bit. They felt heavy but I pushed on, and at mile 11 I was pretty worn out. I kept getting little bursts (I played Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” over and over again the last few miles and tried to keep my pace up with the beat), and I slowed down a bit, but I continued on and pushed to the end.

Fueling

This was one of the biggest pros for me, I felt like I did a really good job with fueling for this race (which is probably why my stomach felt better the rest of the day afterward instead of being upset with me like it normally is after a half). I used to eat Clif Shot Bloks during long runs, and my stomach didn’t like them much. I switched to GU gels, and this seems to work better. The only kind I’ve had is the salted caramel, but it works pretty well. It’s crazy sweet so I can’t have a full one at one time because I get grossed out, so I had half at around mile 7 and some more at around mile 10 I think. I didn’t manage to eat the entire thing, but I did get Gatorade at almost all of the aid stations, and I carried water with me for the first time, which was so helpful since I could then eat the gel whenever I wanted.

Tastes like icing.

The Finish

As soon as I could see the finish line, I started pushing myself, even though my body knew at mile 12 that I had already run 13 miles and it wanted to stop. But the last little bit of the course was in the grass and as soon as I stepped on the grass a girl started passing me. I am SUPER competitive, and knew I didn’t want her to beat me to the finish line. I’m always glad this happens, because I end up finishing really strongly. We both raced to the finish, and ended up crossing the finish at the same time. I turned around to give her a high-five, but she was nowhere to be found, oh well. My finish time was 2:04:03, a 19 second PR! Looking at my splits, mile 10 and 11 were my fastest, which is something to proud of, and mile 12 I slowed down a ton (I’m going to blame it on my body knowing I had already run 13 miles).

Jeremy found me quickly after I finished, and I immediately asked where my grandma was, and he said he had to take her home and she wasn’t able to watch me finish. It turns out that the parking area was located 2-3 miles from the finish line. It was too far for my grandma to walk, so Jeremy drove around and tried to find a way to somehow drop her off at the finish area. He talked to a couple of the people directing traffic (volunteers?) and no one would let him drive through. He understood that they had to be careful with cars going through where the race was, but there were two lanes, and runners were only taking up one lane. They were letting cars go through to the hotel next to the finish line, and he asked if they could make an exception, just so he could drop my grandma off at the hotel (explaining that she couldn’t walk far), but they said no, it was for hotel guests only. So Jeremy had to take her home and she wasn’t able to see me cross the finish line. This was a huge bummer. I wish they had been a little more sympathetic.

Racing to the finish line.

My splits – pretty steady pace, and miles 10 and 11 were my fastest. Mile 12 I lost it… but overall not too bad.

BUT, one of the highlights of the day was meeting Kristin from STUFT Mama. I have been following her blog for a while, and she is the reason I found out about and decided to choose the Runner’s World Challenge training plan for my first marathon. I ended up asking her a question about it, and she emailed me some advice and encouragement, and I emailed her again last week when I had some confusion about the plan. Kristin has seriously been so nice and helpful and enthusiastic, and I really appreciate it! I saw her after the race, and I went up and introduced myself. She was so friendly, and she ended up taking a picture and posting it on her blog! Check it out here! She also took pictures of the race and finish and stuff, which I forgot to do. She finished third overall, and first in her age group. Her time was 1:33:37, and she was taking it easy. It is really inspiring to meet such an accomplished runner, and it makes me excited to work hard and continue to improve!

Picture taken from STUFT Mama’s blog!

Extras

I picked up my bib on Friday at the park where the finish line was. There was no expo, which I didn’t mind, and there was no line whatsoever. It was super easy and fast. The shirt that came with the event is by far the nicest shirt I’ve ever gotten at a race. The material is amazing, and the fit is perfect. It’s nice and long (which is my jam), and it is so comfortable. I didn’t wear it the day of the race for fear of looking like a newb, but there were actually tons of ladies wearing it, so I wouldn’t have felt abnormal. I’ll definitely be wearing it a lot.

There was no finisher’s medal for this race, there was a necklace instead. It’s pretty cute!

Finisher’s necklace.

They texted my results after the race, which was a nice idea, but this is what it said:

All in all, it was a nice, smaller race with a pretty, flat course. If I ran it again (which I probably won’t since my grandma wouldn’t be able to watch me finish and it’s a three and a half hour drive from Santa Barbara), I would just make sure I left earlier to avoid the massive clusterf*ck at the beginning, and so I could walk the mile to the starting line instead of run my ass off. Hopefully I will feel 100% for the SD Half in four weeks, and get closer to a sub-two-hour finish!

Third half marathon done and done!

Done!

Half marathon number three is done, and I couldn’t be happier. Not with my time, but just the fact that it’s over. I came down with something yesterday (second time in two months, that is so not normal for me), and was up all night last night feeling horrible. I ran the race even though I felt awful, and I’m glad I did. And I beat my PR by a whopping 19 seconds! I’m still in San Diego, posting from my phone, and I’ll do a recap when I get home.

Also, I finally got the Runner’s World Challenge figured out and Liz, who has been dealing with all my emails, has been so nice and helpful. I’ll start getting the daily emails next week. Hooray! Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

Sisterhood of the Bloggers

So, I finally got an email back from Runner’s World Challenge after I emailed inquiring where my training plan was, since I was supposed to start on Monday. When I first registered in November, it asked me what plan I wanted and what the date of the race was, so that the emails could automatically start coming in four months before the race. I didn’t see anything in my inbox on Monday, so I emailed them. I finally got a response asking which marathon training plan I wanted to sign up for. Which is frustrating because I already chose one when I paid for the plan and told them in a separate email after that! I responded, and was sent the training plan I requested. I guess this is my mistake, but I could have sworn I read that it was one of those plans where they email you every day with details about training for that day. That’s honestly the only reason I paid so much for it. But this is one of those printed-out plans, which is okay. I’m resting up this week for my race this weekend, so I’ll start next week. Anyways, I hope it was worth it to buy the plan, fingers crossed.

Last night we were at work late and Chinese food was ordered. I just had a taste since I had already eaten soup for dinner, but I did eat two fortune cookies, and the fortunes inside were very appropriate:

On a side note, I don’t know if anyone has had either of these from Trader Joe’s, but they are SO GOOD. Especially together.

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers

Cori over at She’s Going the Distance was so sweet and nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award! I have seen this one floating around, and am excited I get to fill it out now. You’ll find out that I’m super indecisive and can’t choose just one thing, hooray!

Questions:

1. What is your favorite color?

I don’t think I have a favorite color really, but when it comes to real people’s clothes, I pretty much wear charcoal/black/other dark colors. But when it comes to running clothes, I LOVE bright colors, and don’t have enough.

2. Favorite animal?

As a pet, a dog. Other than that, anything miniature, like a hummingbird for example. And these micro pigs:

(source)

Or anything on this list: 24 of the Smallest and Cutest Animals in the World.

3. Favorite non-alcoholic drink?

I’d have to say it’s a tie between coffee and the Greens and Ginger juice from Juice Ranch.

4. Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook is great for keeping up with old friends and posting pictures. I’m just now getting more involved with Twitter again, so maybe that’ll change.

5. Favorite pattern?

I love stripes and plaid, but like I said before, I pretty much only wear greys/charcoal/black.

Stripes and plaid all in one outfit! (Portland, 2013)

Fifty shades of grey.

6. What is your passion?

I have a terrible fear of looking back at my life when I’m old and realizing that I didn’t do everything I wanted to do (I think about it all the time, it’s really healthy). My passion is to not let that happen! Traveling is a huge part of that passion, and I’m so glad that Jeremy and I have made the time in our lives to make this dream come true. I can’t wait to experience new cultures, talk to people from other countries, get to know customs, etc. I think that it’s so important to experience things like that, and I can’t imagine how enriched we’ll feel throughout the process.

It’s a big ol world out there (Switzerland, 2009)

My nominees (my apologies if you’ve already done this!):

For Each Wind That Blows

A Breakthrough and Some Motivation

Well, I am quite proud of myself today. I got up this morning determined to have a good run after the past couple bad ones, and a good one was had for sure. Today was the first time in the history of my running that I had an average pace under 9 minutes!! I know that my fast pace is a million people’s real slow pace, but for me this is a huge victory. I guess taking it easy the last few days has helped. I had zero knee pain, and I was sort of uncomfortable at times since I was pushing more than I’m accustomed to, but for the most part it felt really good. At one point I had been running almost a mile at an 8:45 pace, and I thought to myself, this isn’t so bad. I will take this victory, and use it as confidence in myself during this weekend’s half, even though I’m going into it with no expectations, but just to enjoy it.

!!!!!

My reward this morning.

It was such a nice way to start the day.

In other news, I’m pretty sure I was supposed to start my Runner’s World Challenge marathon training yesterday (it’s a four-month plan), and I still haven’t received anything. They are supposed to send me an email with my daily training plan every morning. I wrote them an email and haven’t heard back yet, and they never responded to one I sent a couple months ago, so that’s a little frustrating. I paid good money for this plan! Hopefully I’ll hear something soon.

And now, some motivation for your Tuesday, from The Luthas Corporation blog:

19 Hard Things You Need To Do To Be Successful

You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.
You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.
You have to give more than you get in return right away.
You have to care more about others than they care about you.
You have to fight when you are already injured, bloody, and sore.
You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.
You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.
You have to invest in yourself even though no one else is.
You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have.
You have to grind out the details when it’s easier to shrug them off.
You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option.
You have to search for your own explanations even when you’re told to accept the “facts.”
You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.
You have to try and fail and try again.
You have to run faster even though you’re out of breath.
You have to be kind to people who have been cruel to you.
You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled.
You have to be accountable for your actions even when things go wrong.
You have to keep moving towards where you want to be no matter what’s in front of you.

Lily Runs the World

training while traveling