I'm Gonna Try to Not Be Such a Girl...

Today my #RWrunstreak ended. Let me explain.

During yesterday's Dirty Bird Trail Run after about a mile or so Ro sped off without us and Kim and I stuck together for the remainder of the miles. At the water stop we meet back up with Tim and ran and chatted with him for a few miles.

Here is something funny. This picture was taken yesterday...

This one was about shear and a half ago, same trails different day.

We had some interesting conversations on the trail. One was about injuries. Tim told us about how he has never suffered from a running related injury, he didn't even need to knock on wood after.

He had a very good theory on injury prevention. His thinking is pretty simple, if he doesn't feel good while he's running he stops. What a novel idea, to listen to your body, to not always push through the pain. To know when to say when and to be okay with it. To know that, as runners we are not defined by just today's run.

It seems so simple. Why is this such a hard thing?

I have had two runs in particular that I can say were my most horrible. One was durning marathon training, the second was when I had my stress fracture in March. Both times it was so hard to stop, even when it was insanely painful. I try not to think of it in terms of quitting, but that is just what it feels like.

Is it a girl thing? I think it might be. Why do we push ourselves so hard? Why don't we let ourselves off the hook? Why is it so hard to remember that one run, race or mile doesn't define us?

With this new thinking in mind, I decided to call it quits with the Runners World Holiday Running Streak. After running a marathon this weekend {I know it was over two days, but I think that's a lot of miles for two days} I meet Ro at the Y this morning for some cross training. I figured I would get my rest day one mile run in after I got home from work. The more I thought about it, the more horrible it sounded and the more my body was telling me that I just didn't need to do it. So I came home, made some pasta and have been watching tv with the family, just relaxing all evening.

Here is what I have decided I will do.

• Listen to my body, if it tells me that I shouldn't run then I won't, if it tells me to stop then I will. {This is going to be so hard!}
• Rest, I have a hard time embracing my rest days, I really need to get over that.
• Focus on cross training, weights will make me stronger even though I hate them.
• Become consistent with yoga. I am going to work very hard to keep doing Sunday night hot yoga, and Thursday night free yoga at Lululemon.
• Keep my fingers crossed that Patti keeps doing her Wednesday night Pilates class at OK Runner.

Running is fun, and there is nothing worse than thinking that everyone else is out running and having fun without me. My new goal is to help my body keep running for a long time to come. There is lots of pavement to pound, trails to cover and races to run. I'm gonna try to be a big picture kind of girl.

 

I didn't say it would be easy but I am gonna try.

 

Do you push yourself too hard? Do you try not to?

 

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20 Miles and a Trail Run...

#RWrunstreak still alive, total run streak = 13 days.

My friend Patti is training to run the Disney Marathon in January. She had a 20 mile run on her schedule this weekend. Rochelle and I made a plan to meet her and run with her.

I haven't run 20 miles since I ran the Memorial Marathon in 2011, so I figured I would run as long as my mind and my legs were in agreement. We meet at Patti's house at 6:15 am and ran the four miles to OK Runner to meet the group.

We discovered in the first four miles that we were overdressed in our long sleeved shirts, good thing we were meeting at my favorite running store. After a costume change we headed out on a 12 mile loop around campus. I had a Garmin fail at the first water stop when I stopped my Garmin instead of using my auto pause. When we started up again I forgot to start my watch for almost a mile and a half.

It was pretty windy out but the weather was pretty amazing for December 1st. I didn't think I would be running in capris and a tank top in December. We finished up the loop and made it back to the store, got a little water and fuel and headed back out for the four mile run back to Patti's house.

It was a great day, and a real confidence booster for me. Coming back from injury, this distance seemed so far off for me. Total running time was around three hours and I even felt pretty strong in the last few miles. I got to finish with a smile on my face.

After a stop for some Gatorade with protein and two bags of ice I headed home and straight into an ice bath.

I am really loving the ice baths, I stayed in for about thirty minutes and I really thinker it helped with my recovery. I was on my feet for most of the rest of the day.

Today was the Dirty Bird Trail Run and Chili Cook-Off. I made a plan to meet Ro and Kim to do the 10k trail run.

We took off and after about a mile or so Kim and I dropped back a little. Our plan was to just have fun and walk when we needed to. My tired legs weren't too uncooperative. We meet back up with Tim at the water stop and we just chatted and ran and walked our way to the finish line.

The finish line had chili (even vegetarian) and beer. We hung out for a while and visited with friends and took come pictures...

My favorite race director, Dave, who also provided the beer.

Julie, Kim, Tim, me and Ro. It takes a lot to get a picture with this group. The guy taking the pic for us was good enough to get candid shots of the group assembling.

After a few more pics, two beers, and some veggie chili I was headed back to the house covered in dirt.

The weekend ended with hot yoga and The Amazing Race with Josh and the girls. Not a bad two days of running. Maybe there will be a marathon in Galveston after all.

 

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WIAW, Lets Talk Half Marathon Fueling...

#RWrunstreak day 8, one mile with Josh after work. I'm glad he went with me because it was really dark already.

For my WIAW post this week I thought I'd talk about the improper fueling I did for my last half marathon.

{As I type this we are watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. One of my favorites, but its still November.}

Anyway, I should probably throw in some pictures of some recent eats before I talk about the food I didn't eat. So...

As the weather gets cooler I find myself making more soups and stews. On Sunday I made a pot do Veggie Pot Pie Soup from the Cheeky Kitchen. You should check out her pics because they are much more beautiful than any I could take. This soup is every bit as good as it looks.

I recently discovered a new foodie blog that has some fantastic looking recipes. I decided to try out the Honey Dinner Rolls to go with the soup. {Have I ever told you that I aspire to be a bread maker? No? Well I would love to make wonderful homemade bread. There, now I've told you.}

Now that we have that out of the way lets see what it looked like...

After one last rise we threw them in the oven and they turned into this...

I'm not gonna lie to you, these are AMAZing. You should make them immediately. We just had the last one with the leftover soup and I'm very sad they are all gone.

So back to half marathon fueling. We went up to Tulsa Friday night before the marathon. I ended up sleeping in on Saturday morning until 9:45! For anyone that knows me they might think I was seriously ill. I never sleep that late. I got up and went for my 30 minute shake out run, when I got back to the in-laws house I had a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

After the girls and I hit up the expo we went by Cherry Berry and got some frozen yogurt. By the time we got home it was after four, and then there was the waxing field trip. For dinner my MIL made a salad with yummy roasted veggies and lasagna.

Here I would like to point out to the lasagna makers of the world that it is not necessary to put white sauce on veggie lasagna. Really, red sauce is made of tomatoes and as a vegetarian I have to say I enjoy tomato based sauces. You can make a perfectly wonderful veggie lasagna with zucchini, mushrooms, spinach and red sauce. Talking about this is making me want to make some lasagna.

I am grateful that I have the worlds greatest MIL and she bought me my very own veggie lasagna, I just didn't eat as much of it as I should have. That seemed to be the theme for the entire day. I should have done some serious carb loading.

I did do a good job of drinking lots of Nuun water, but the lack of proper fueling really affected my race. By the time I got a Gu at about mile 8 my tank was empty. Gu on an empty stomach actually made me a little nauseous. It was not a fun feeling.

I did make it through the race, even if I was a little unhappy with my performance. The most frustrating part is that this was completely preventable on my part. I guess if running was easy everyone would do it. I did learn valuable lesson and will work hard to not repeat it next time.

 

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Bedlam, Ear Infections and a Pedicure...

#RWrunstreak day six. I got in a mile while my frittata was in the oven this morning. It was a little hard into the wind going out but coming back was a little easier. 8:47 pace.

Turkey Tracks 5k...

#RWrunstreak day 3.

Last Thanksgiving I ran my first Thanksgiving themed 5k, today I ran the Turkey Tracks 5k with some friends.

Like last year's race it followed the Route 66 half marathon. My legs were pretty beat up after Sunday's race, we ended up running a 6.5 mile hilly route on Tuesday morning and my legs were angry the rest of the day. Wednesday was a flat 5 mile run and it did a lot to help me recover.

I was excited that the race didn't start until 9 this morning, it's nice to sleep in a little on a Thursday. I meet Kim and Dwight at their house and we headed downtown.

Kim and Dwight

Kim and I

Dwight, Kim, me, Jesica and her friend Jennifer

Me, Ben and Kim. Ben ran the marathon in Tulsa Sunday and we convinced this would be fun.

Who wouldn't want their picture taken with this guy?

It was a beautiful morning, just a little windy, and before we knew it we were off. My splits from my Garmin were pretty good, 7:38, 7:31 and 8:15. The last mile included a hill on Broadway that was straight into some pretty mean wind. At one point my pace was around 9:30. I was the 37th woman overall with an official time of 24:28, 4th in my age group.

We hung around at the finish and got to see some friends.

This English bulldog was too cute to not take his picture.

I even saw a David, he was on our team for the Ragnar Relay in Colorado. He just ran the Las Vegas race two weeks ago. Yes, I am very jealous.

It was a mini high school reunion, my friend Chad was in town from Savannah, I think he convinced me that I need to come to Savannah for the Rock n Roll race.

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out. Josh was painting, and fixing this disaster of a painting decision.

Josh even ran his first mile of the #RWrunstreak. Tomorrow I think we will finish painting, and by we I mean Josh, and it'll be time to get out the Christmas decorations.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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