day 78

whew...what a whirlwind yesterday and today were!



so, after i posted yesterday, us girls in the office went to lunch and then, because we are awesome, made a trip to macy's! a little bit of shopping on an extended lunch break?....yes please :) i love my job! i then spent the rest of the day composing a very interesting/exciting message and talking with my sister - man is she a hoot! (love you shannie) there was some work done in there too - i promise. will have to get back to you all on the message ;) after work - dinner at bj's with roomie and new friends and then pumpkin carving time!!! yay for new friends!



got up this morning, yes - early, and went running! was supposed to make it to 8 miles but due to poor planning on my part and lack of time only made it to 6.2 - still, i think that is an accomplishment - right?!



amusing items from todays run:

• finally found my groove - woot!


• at one point i actually did try to run after the cute boys passing me - it didn't really work though, he was just too dang fast :( however, he did have very nice calf muscles hehe ;)


• running makes me dirty - boo. really, it's like the dirt just attacks me and i don't even know there's a fight going on until i loose


• i found that when the guy running in, what can only be described as an electric blue speedo, passed me twice - i really did not care in the least - bleh


• excited about next weekend for two reasons :)
  

i then went to a workshop for a new retreat i'm staffing and made more new friends! was then made fun of by my sister when she called and found out i had been put in charge of checking that all the pens worked - yes you can make fun too. next - picked up candy for all the kids in our complex for halloween - who, by the way, never came and now i'm stuck with all this candy - double boo.

so, in conclusion, had a very good two days and am looking forward to the next!!!

with God all things are possible

one of my favorite pictures!

day 79

okay you guys - i hit a milestone this morning - or so i would like to think!



if you can remember, i have been dreading the morning workouts. because, as you know, if you aren't a morning person to begin with (me), working out in the morning ain't gonna happen. well, i will have you know, it has happened! lol

last night, my roommate took me to task (thank goodness) and we did some cardio :) then as we cooled down (or struggled to stay upright) she wanted to go right into an ab workout - can you say "um...no thank you." that is exactly what i said to her! - yes, thank you, i can be strong when i want to be! however, i then lost all reasoning and "checked" the length of the program to see if i might want to do it in the morning - yes that's right - a friday morning. She caught me in the act and volunteered to do it with me - wasn't that nice of her! so at 7am this morning i turned my alarm off, dragged her out of bed and we went through 15 minutes of hell - actually, it was a really good workout and i can feel it still :) (thank you andrew for p90x!)

so, milestone - i can actually wake up for a morning workout and get to work almost on time! woo hoo!

yay for me!


with God all things are possible

day 83

hello all!



saturday was supposed to be my long run - i knew that and i didn't forget, however, some things are just more fun - right?! yesterday i went and saw christopher west speak - can you say awesome! it was so mind-blowing and i'm so glad that i was able to go! and then there was shopping with my roommate, where i found a pair of jeans and passed on a gorgeous $20 necklace - how strong am i! next - shoes!!


but in the running world, i did go for my long run today, all 6 miles of it. it might not have been the correct day but it did get done. let me tell you it was brutal. i came back after about an hour and a half and can honestly say that i'm beginning to have my doubts - but i did do all 6 miles (walking some) and that is more than i could have done before so i say it's an accomplishment! although, after mile 4 the only thing that kept me going is the fact that it was the only way i was getting home ;)



note to self - running in the middle of the day is not such a good idea - next time remember that before you decide to run later and not when you first wake up. it's very hot in the sun....





with God all things are possible



fall is my favorite time of year! (columbus, ohio)

day 85

another week has come and gone and it's time for me to check in and see how i've done...


october has been quite the month and it's not yet done. i spent this past weekend in good old columbus, ohio! meeting my beautiful niece, annabel, and seeing my brother and sister-in-law. it was an exciting time! in fact, i was even able to see my brother run his first ever marathon - whoa! i came away from that experience with some advice from a 'seasoned' marathoner:

• don't miss the last 5.5 weeks of training or i'm are gonna hurt


• remember to put my name in big letters on my shirt


• get a friend to stand at mile 20 to tell me to 'give up while i'm ahead'
  

not so sure about that last one, but andrew said...

my new goal is to beat his time - probably not so sure that is what my goal should be - ya know, brotherly love and all that, but whatever keeps me moving forward - right?!

so, let's get down to business and see what's been happening

last week i swam laps in the pool (where else?) and then spent the weekend playing with my baby girl :) then wednesday for cardio i came up with a brilliant idea and ran up and down stairs for 15 minutes - brutal. thursday was good too - i ran four miles at a 13.5 pace - okay, it was a really good day! tomorrow promises to be good too as i go for my 6 mile long run - yikes

revelations:

• stairs are brutal. next time remember that the bathroom of where you work is on the second floor and that you still live on the third floor and your home does not come down to meet you at the car and they will not be adding an elevator anytime soon. remember that the next time stairs sound like a good workout.


• it's not such a good idea to wear heels the day after running 4 miles- just saying.


• sleep is still conducive to running - need to pay more attention to that one detail.
  

so there you have it there it is - i hurt, but i'm running better :) i hurt alot actually...

p.s. i have now officially broken in my shoes - they met the world of mud yesterday and not just any mud - the cold, wet, slimy kind. oh, and in case you didn't know, when you run through mud there is a pretty good possibility that you will kick it up onto your leg - so beware the cold, wet, slimy mud!

with God all things are possible

my beautiful baby girl!

day 95

sleep is conducive to running, just in case you didn't know...



this weekend was awesome on the social life side of things, not so stupendous on the getting my butt in gear for the marathon side. you live, you learn - right? however, you will be happy to know that i have had quite a number of breakthroughs this weekend.

1. if you aren't a morning person to begin with, don't think that you will actually get up to go run in the dark when your alarm goes off at 5:30 in the morning...


2. even if you don't like taking two showers a day, it's better than...well...than trying to get up at o-dark thirty


3. my roommate telling me i need to run is not as motivating as having to tell my co-worker that i didn't run (i think something is wrong with this one)


4. i have thrown out the "we'll see" and replaced it with "will do" thanks to my sister
5. get more sleep - it is conducive to running!

i ran 4 miles today after work. the trail was busy around rice and even though i tried not to let it get to me, every time a runner passed me, i waivered between stopping or chasing after them :) like phoebe says - i should run towards the cute boys! (friends reference) - i really need to remember that next time!

i am now running outside around a university and if you aren't living in my neck of the woods, let me clue you in. houston, texas is very humid. in fact, with the rain and warm-ish weather we have been having the past few days, it's more like a soup when you walk outside (although it was fun jumping over and around all the puddles). fyi, breathing soup is not as difficult as breathing freezing air, but i wouldn't recommend it. (and forget about even taking the time to think about blow-drying or straightening your hair because it's just a waste of valuable brain power). i will say though, i think the air was too heavy today for the mosquitoes to come out and play so score one for houston. also, i'm pretty sure that i rocked the crazy hair on the track!

it feels really good to be able to say that i ran 4 miles (even though i did walk some of it). however, it's a little disappointing to think that when day light savings comes in a few weeks i will have to give up my evening runs for stupid morning ones instead. i refuse to run without the sun. it just makes things so much more cheerful! but i still have some time before that goes into effect, so i'm going to enjoy it while i have it! and that my friends was day 95!

oh, note to self, buy higher running socks to prevent the trail grit from getting inside my shoe - or just stop walking - it doesn't seem to happen when i run :) decisions, decisions

with God all things are possible

the monkey bread to which i referred to on day 99 :)

day 99

today is day 99 in my 100 day countdown!

the plan of action is to run tuesdays and thursdays with my long run taking place on saturdays. incorporated into this will be rest days and cardio days - have to keep that blood pumping but still give time to recoop. so lets see how i did the first two weeks of training shall we?!

week one:
a trip to see my sister and brother-in-law, shannon&kevin, in colorado gave me a chance to try out hills (which i'm fairly certain i didn't need to experience for at least a few more weeks). can i just say, i don't like hills! there is a reason, if only one, that houston is the place to run and that reason is that it is as flat as one can possibly get, in fact, i'm sure there are places that are downhill in both directions. add the altitude, lack of oxygen and the monkey bread that we devoured the night before to a colorado run and forget about it. i managed to log 2 miles but i'm pretty sure that all the extra effort added like 10! i'm just saying :) oh oh and it was freezing - i could see my breath, truly i would not lie - and did you know that cold air really hurts the lungs? well now you do! and that was week one!

week two:
goal - run 3 to 4 miles twice this week and 4 on saturday.
accomplished - 3.4 miles on wednesday and cardio yesterday, today is not over and saturday has yet to arrive.
actually, jessica and i decided to take advantage of the pool last night and i'm so glad that we did. we began by just swimming laps, because that is what one normally does in a pool, and then it just evolved from there. running across a 4ft deep pool in a race against one another is extremely difficult (well, not extremely, but still pretty dang hard) and alot of fun! i'm sure we probably "ran" a mile in the water :) you must know that this was after we went shopping where i managed to find two necklaces and a shirt, which i'm wearing today, all for under 10 bucks! (it's not all about running)

i will have to let you know how the rest of the day and week goes!

with God all things are possible

first and foremost

as i sit here staring at a blank screen, i find that my idea to create a blog is turning out to be more intimidating than deciding to train for the actual marathon. how do i start? what should i say really? how did i get myself into this? well, that last question is easier to answer than the others, so lets start there. after cheering my brother, andrew, on at his first half-marathon more than a year ago, i felt motivated to do something great just like him! unfortunately, like all my other poorly thought out resolutions, it quickly became one of those 'i once thought about running a marathon' moments and was then neatly tucked away into the recesses of my mind that hold what-could-have-beens. however, over the past seven months or so, the idea began to appear much more attractive to me. i thought about it and thought about it. i even took the first step and purchased some running shoes and started going to the gym more regularly with friends (although, i'm not so sure how beneficial that time was :) considering we would be done 30 minutes into it and go out to eat right after). then i began reading about running and how to train for a marathon and all that jazz. then i started telling friends and family what i was thinking about and it just grew from there until i found myself excited, pumped-up, nervous, scared and ready to register come july! now as i begin my sixteen week hard-core training (which started two weeks ago, i just think 100 days to run sounds more interesting than 114 days) i find that i need a little bit more motivation and accountability to survive the next three months. so, in a nut shell, that is why i'm here doing what i'm doing. oh, p.s. there are a few more serious reasons that i won't go into right now, maybe later :)

and that my friends is how this all began! if i can handle a marathon, i'm convinced that i can handle anything!

with God all things are possible!