Let's play catch up shall we....

So it has been 2 months!  It has been a whirlwind at work with year end and in life.  I started this blog as something to track my food, fitness, and adventures and the last few months life has been getting in the way of many of those things.  But I want to get back into it and start to share the new things that have been keeping me busy!  So what have I been up to the last 2 months....

1) Graduating!!!  I had finished up my classes but I finally got my diploma and it was the best feeling in the world.

2) Job hunting, planning a move, trying not to freak out!  Yup this is a daily battle.  I am still planning on moving early next year to MN to be with the BF so right now I am trying to find a job and an easy way to transition out of the one I am in.  I know I have plenty of time but I am still stressed and keeping my fingers crossed that I find the perfect job for me!

3) Running a marathon relay!  The Detroit Marathon Relay was an absolute blast!  It was so fun to be running with 4 of my favorite people and it was a really fun but long day.  Since I was the last leg I had to wait about 4 hours before it was my time to run, thankfully we had heated charter busses that I was able to sleep on.  Overall we didn't finish at our goal time but it was still a great experience.  Oh and I had the best view from my leg start!

4) Putting on a tutu and celebrating halloween!  My girlfriends and I decided to be tutu superheros this year and I think it turned out super cute.  We also did pumpkin carving and learned that some of us are better at it then others lol

5) Celebrating 2 amazing years with the BF!  I cannot believe we have already been together for 2 years... it is one of the cliche feel like you know them forever but still have those early on butterfly feelings that is just too good to be true.  Since we are apart we decided that the best way to celebrate would be to meet in the middle in Chicago.  We did the classic touristy stuff, attended a Second City comedy show (which was hilarious) and went to soldier field for my first ever bears game.  I was seriously like a small child I was so excited.  It was a perfect weekend with the man I love!

 

 

 

6) Ran my first trail race!  It is called the dirty duel mud run and last year it was sponsored by Red Bull.  It took almost an hour to complete the 5K course and it was all natural obstacles like large hills and sand dunes.  I was sore for days but it was one of the coolest races I have ran.

 

 



7) Thankgiving!  This year I flew out to MN and spent the whole weekend with just the BF.  His family was in Florida but we couldn't coordinate it in our schedule so we decided to spend the long weekend with eachother and good friends.  I made enough food for a small army but the BF was happy he didn't have to cook the rest of the week.  We also ran a 5K around gorgeous Lake Calhoun which has a perfect view of downtown Minneapolis... too bad it was only 5 degrees that morning so I didn't take too many pics!

 

8) Recommitting to fitness!  My knees haven't been doing so well with running so I decided to fall in love with some other forms of fitness.  I joined a gym in my area and take 3-4 classes a week.  I am obsessed with Barre (probably since I have a dance background) and have been taking TRX, yoga, tabata, and bootcamp classes.  I have really seen a transformation in my body and I am loving how much it is mixed up.  I have slowly started getting back into running after taking a few weeks off and I just bought a brand new pair of shoes.  I have even told myself that I will be running a Marathon in 2014 so we will see how that goes!!!



 So that is my life in a nut shell!  Now I feel caught up and can get back to it!

Happy Friday!



Running is always better in new gear

I swear I am only ever motivated to run when I A) have a race that I am excited about or B) have new running gear!  Thankfully I have the later which made running yesterday enjoyable.

Sooo two weekends ago when I was in Minnie with the BF we decided to stop at an outlet mall on our way up to the lake house.  I love Banana Republic clothes for work but don't like to pay full price so we figured we would just swing in to look at a few things.  Well while there I saw a few girls with Lululemon Athletica bags.... I had heard a rumor that Lululemon outlets existed but knew there were none in MI so I never really looked again.  Well to my surprise the outlets we were at had them!!!  No I have always loved their workout gear but have never ever ever been able to afford anything more then a headband lol!  I was like a kid in a spandex candy store with everything 30-60% off!!  Pretty sure the BF thought I was crazy but I was just so excited to stock up on some new gear.  I walked out with 3 new pairs of running pants and 1 new pair of yoga shorts... I could have bought so much more but wanted to keep it under control (at least for this trip HA).  I was so pumped for the weather to wear my new leggings that it actually made me kinda excited to run.

I was able to get in 3 miles, the first 2 were pretty solid and I had to walked some of the 3rd but it still boosted my confidence for the relay next weekend.  I plan on doing 5 this weekend just so that I know I have it on race day but for now I am feeling good!  I guess I will have to sign up for another race soon so that I keep up my motivation, and my excuse to buy new stuff!

Detroit Zoo 10K

Sunday was race day! 

This was the longest race I had signed up for this fall and I was actually really excited for it.  All of my girlfriends had ran the zoo race before but I was always out of town or had another engagement.  The race starts just outside of the Detroit Zoo, circles through the cute community surrounding it, and then ends right inside the gates of the zoo.  It was a super chilly morning but it was perfect running weather!

 

My goal for the race was to get under an 11 minute pace average, and I ended up officially finishing in 01:07:57 which put me at a 10:49 minute mile average.  Overall I was happy with my performance but I am not sure what is up with mile 4.... it always seems to be my worst mile!

 

 

The original plan was to see the animals but thanks to the temperature actually dropping during the run we were all frigid and decided to call it a day.  My right knee was super tight which was odd so I spent a good portion of the day relaxing and propping it up.  Today I am rocking the compression sleeves at work to help my tight legs, thankfully it is back to dress pants season!  This afternoon I hope to get in some time on the eliptical and then tonight is yoga to get me all stretched out. 

 

 

 

Hope everyone has a great monday!

5 things Friday

This week has been super odd, and busy so I mainly just have a random smattering of things to share!

1) I haven't been feeling well this week due to allergies but I was finally able to get my booty out of the house last night for a full 4 mile run.  The weather was perfect, I do hate fall but I have learned to appreciate the cooler temps to run in.  The Detroit Zoo 10K is on Sunday so this was my last big run before the race!

2) They just released the shirt design for the Detroit Marathon.... I hate red so I am not super happy about the color!  The design on the back though is pretty BA, and our team t-shirts are going to be awesome so I will take the free shirt!

 

3) The amount of baked goods in my house is not okay.  I successfully made my first batch of scones the other day and then got the brilliant idea to make more to ship to the BF but only half would fit in the box.  So now I have 6 PB Banana scones just sitting in my house, along with a ton of salted caramel chocolate chip cookies that my roomie made for work.  Yesterday I ended up eating a cookie post run and convinced myself that the salted caramel counted as sodium replacement... willpower fail!

 

4) My BF is amazing and sent me a care package with a super cute frog he won for me at the Minnesota State Fair a few weeks back, and a mutually beneficial gift card to VS.  He did tell me it couldn't be used for bathing suits or yoga pants.... he knows me far too well!

 

 

5) Everyone should stop whatever else they are doing with their time and watch Orange Is The New Black.  It is a netflix original series that is AMAZING, and thankfully it will only take you a few days to binge watch all episodes so the 30 day free trial is perfect for anyone currently without a Netflix account.  I decided to take my few days feeling sick to finish up the last episodes in bed and I can't wait for the second season even though I am pretty sure it hasn't even started filming yet.

 

 

 

Tonight is a girls night out on the town, and then tomorrow will hopefully be a perfect pool day followed by rest so that I can kick booty at the 10K Sunday.  Everyone have an amazing weekend!





Running in the rain!

0% chance of rain... until I head out for my lunch time run of course!  I know you are supposed to train for any weather..... however running in the rain during lunch really isn't practical since my hair would turn into a curly hot mess for the rest of work!  I only was required to run 1mile but I really wanted to get in 2 just to feel better about the 10K this weekend.  The weather had a different idea so I turned around early and made it just over 1.  I usually don't run under an 11 minute mile and now that I have done it 2 days in a row I am getting even more confident that my speed training will pay off!

 

Also on the training plan today was strength training, the TIU Triathlon strength plan seemed like a perfect all over body workout and it didn't dissapoint.  This plan really concentrated on arms and abs with a few leg workouts thrown in.  My legs already get super toned when running consistently so I don't like to do too much at the gym to make them even more sore but I know I need to do at least little things to keep them strong and safe. 

 

And NO I am not planning on doing a triathlon anytime ever!!!  Swimming is best saved for the pool when I am too hot from laying out.... and I have this little problem where I don't know how to ride a bike sooooooooooo

 

Plan for tonight, get in a good session with my foam roller, complete my LAST final exam ever, and make up some chicken kabobs!!

Weekend Recap

Why does it have to be Monday again?  I am spoiled by my every other 3 day weekends, and it does make the 2 day weekends a little tougher to get back from. 

Friday, checked out an awesome new bar called On the Dunes which is a hike away but it offers a lot of cool activities like bags, ping pong, volleyball, all mixed in with bars and great drink specials.  We went with a huge group and everyone wanted to play volleyball, I'm not really a volleyball girl so I just sat out and watched.  It would have been a great night if it wasn't so dang cold... we will have to go back when it is a little warmer and when I am drunk enough to play :-)

Saturday got in a few hours at the pool and then headed out for the Walk the Plank bar crawl.  It was a bar crawl coordinated for a few extended friends and their birthday.  It wasn't a typical bar crawl in that the bars when from shady to just dirty and you couldn't walk from them but it was def an experience.  Plus any night that ends in drunken taco bell is good in my book!  Plus we also got our picture with the Captain!

 

 

Thankfull I didn't drink too much and was able to have a very productive Sunday.  I knew I needed to grocery shop, meal prep for the week, do 1 of my final exams, get in a good run, and skype date with my love.  Thankfully I was able to get everything done!  I can't believe that I only have 1 final exam left to do (tonight) before I am completely done with grad school!!!!  It must of put me in a good mood because I was able to bust out a solid 3 miles (at less then my normal pace thank goodness) and then enjoy the rest of the night chatting with my love.  This long distance thing sucks but facetime makes it so much more managable. 

 

 

I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well!

 

 



Back in training!

Sooo last week marked my first week back in training. I don't have any super long races coming up but I do have the Detroit Zoo 10K on September 14th and then my 4.5 miles leg of the Detroit Marathon on October 20th. Last week marked 8 weeks until the Marathon so I decided to find a good 10K plan to help me increase my speed and help with my endurance. No plan really fit what I wanted so I just took the best one I could find and made some changes.

The one thing different about the plan I printed off is that for the first time I am including speed work into the mix. I usually run a 11-12 minute mile pace for long races and can sometimes get it to a 10:30 for shorter races like a 5K. I recently had to do a mile for time and I actually got myself down to 9:35 but I also knew I only had to sustain it for one mile. Since my portion of the relay is only 4.5 miles I decided that I would set my time goal to hit under a 10 minute mile! This is a huge deal for me so I wanted to train for it appropriately.

First let me say that I had a hard time figuring out what in the world I was supposed to do... seeing things like "4x800 5K pace" threw me for a total loop. Thankfully I found an awesome plan from Hal Higdon that explained everything perfectly. Tuesday I got in 3.5 miles and yesterday I had to do 4x800's. This means that I run 400 meters at a 5K pace and then am supposed to jog for another 400 meters before I repeat. Yeaaaaaa about that...... it wasn't pretty. I couldn't seem to get my stamina up to jog during the "rest" meters. This is def going to take some work and my legs are def not happy that I even tried it yesterday. I know it is only the second week so I have 6 more to go to get the hang on it but I really hope I can pull it together at least on race day to help my team out!

The only thing that did help my running mood is that while away this weekend I decided to pick up some new shoes! I went to Gazelle Sports in Grand Rapids which is where I got my last pair and tried on a few different styles. Apparently I am a Nike Lunarglide girl because I ended up choosing the exact same shoes I have been running in since February. These ones are much brighter though and were def fun to run in. I may not be able to run fast but at least I will look good doing it (or just distract people with my neon yellow)!

Ruined by Soffe Shorts

So I officially decided today that I hate traditional running shorts!  Pretty sure that a liftime of the classic cheerleading and dance costume of Soffe shorts or spandex ruined me from the look and feel of real running shorts.  A few months ago I picked up 2 pretty cute pairs from UA and I really just can't get into them.  First I don't understand why they don't roll at least twice without getting bunchy.  You can roll a pair of Soffe shorts like 3 times before they look weird (albiet they look super short lol).  And second I feel like there is just an insane amount of fabric loose around my thigh.  I hate that when I sit down to stretch I feel like you can see straight up them, because you can, and that they get all bunched up when I run.  I understand this is total #firstworldrunnerproblems but I still had to vent!

I was able to get in a good run today though on my lunch hour.  The first two miles went pretty smooth and I had to walk a bit of the third but it still felt great to finally get a run in outside.  It has been too balls hot to do anything outside since the start of July but the current mid to low 70s is perfect.  Followed it up with my favorite flavor of NUUN which I am sadly now out of :-(  I was actually really surprised that I love the grape most since anything artifically flavored in grape usually makes me gag!  Guess I will have to do another Amazon order soon.

Hopefully everyone is able to get out and enjoy the weather today!

SNQANA4JDRFRRFTHC 5K

So the only productive thing that we did on our vacation was the:

Second, Not Quite Annual, North American 4th of July, Drunk Run Fun Run Race for the Hangover Cure.... or for short the SNQANA4JDRFRRFTHC.  I can't take credit for the name, it was created by the BFs friends a few years ago when they all decided to run drunk one morning.  The race is actually called the Nisswa Firecracker 5K , it is sponsored by PBR and it is held in the super cute little town that is next to the lake we stayed on.  All of us are pretty good runners, but no matter how good you are, after a week of drinking and sun that last thing you want to do is run.  So we decided to keep with the past and pound twisted teas beforehand.  The course is super pretty and winds though a few parks and lakes, and at the end we all got to enjoy a crawfish fry and unlimited PBR!

I can't really consider this a true race, but in my book any physical activity during vacation drunk or not should count LOL