Soaking in the Rain

Still was hacking up a lung all weekend-my intentions to have a weekend full of exercise were obliterated. I did manage to walk the dogs a few times this weekend. Saturday was rough on me, I think my allergies were affecting me even more than this crud I've been fighting, and just being outdoors was making it hard to breathe. KK wanted to walk with me so we did a 1 mile loop through some developments, first with Oscar (dachshund) and Bubba (beagle/cavalier mix), then we went back and took Jamba (pitbull) out. It's too hard to walk them all together by myself and I tried letting KK walk Bubba and Oscar and they pulled her. I was teaching her how to "be the boss" and tell the dogs to go where she wants them to go- it would work for a short period and then she would be screaming for me help and they stopped cooperating, silly boys.

Sunday I cleaned the house. Spring cleaning on a day that felt like October. Don't even get me started on how sick I am of the cold. Summer really only comes after the Fourth of July and lasts through the first 2 weeks of September but I can't help but to get my hopes up come May/ June every year.

Monday it rained. In the early afternoon it seemed like light enough sprinkles that I could take the dogs out for a walk again. KK joined me for walking Oscar and Bubba. She was excited to have the chance to use her cow umbrella and stomp in every mud puddle she could find. I swung back by the house to get Jamba and KK insisted on going with me again. One quick loop around our neighborhood and I decided it was too rainy for her to be out with me for another half an hour so I took her home to stay with James. I kind of wanted to try running so I did. My lungs were burning from not being 100% recovered from this bug but it still felt good. Ran the rest of the first mile I had started with KK, then continued into the second mile. Mile 3 I decided to just walk home. You'd think that it being rainy I would want to get home as soon as possible but it felt good to be out there. Sometimes (especially if you're from WA) you just need to soak in the rain. It felt almost theraputic to just experience the day as it was instead of rushing to get out of it, or grumbling and wishing for sunshine. I'm definitely ready for early morning summer runs in the sun but yesterday reminded me that we can have good runs no matter the distance, pace or weather.

Changing my Path

So I know just barely over a week ago I posted an entire blog about Marathon Maniacs being my next goal, well scratch all that. Let me explain why.

After my terrible 9.5 miler on the 11th I decided to take a week off of running to let my legs (and brain) re-coop. I started getting a sore throat half way through the week but I just chalked it up to allergies. Saturday I ran the Armed Forces Day 1 miler with KK, my 4 year old. After running a few kids dashes this was her first 1-miler and she was so excited to run a "real" race with the adults. She was so cute in her little tech gear with her Nike's, and race bib pinned on. FREAKING ADORABLE. This was the inagural race so I heard the total count was 114, perfect number for running with a child next to you- not much danger of getting run over. The race started running from the Ferry Terminal through a tunnel and then onto city streets. It was so funny because they announced that we had to run fast because the ferry was actually on time today- that got a good chuckle. So we took off running. KK was flying, when she puts her all into it I can't even keep up with her. Thankfully for me she doesn't yet have the stamnia to keep that pace for more than 200 yards or so. We took a few walking breaks but she would hold my hand and tell me when we were running and when we were walking. The course ended coming up a slight hill before turning down to the finish line. KK was walking up until we saw the finish line and then she took off like a rocket and actually left me in the dust. We ran a 13:27 mile. I was so proud of her. Her face was lit up and she was loving it. A few people reserving their spots for the parade sat in their chairs and cheered for her. James and Bailey were waiting at the finish line and of course then Bailey wanted to get out of her stroller and run. I un-buckled her and we ran up and down the sidewalks a few times.

Crossing the finish line with KK

Sunday I was really congested and knew that it wasn't just allergies. It was my brothers 21st birthday and the girls and I went out to my parents for dinner, James had to work. My family had gone to the comedy club with my brother the night before but I couldn't get babysitting and James had to work. Blah. I went home wondering how I was going to feel the next day. I could feel my sinuses plugging up by the second. Monday I went to work but left early and went to the doctor- got some antibotics! Sinus infection + ear infection + all heading towards bronchitis = almost 3 full days in bed for me. My husband was wonderful and kept the girls out of my face, let me nap A LOT, and ensured I was taking my medicine.



Today I'm still kind of hacking up a lung. I'm going to skip my Saturday morning run- if I'm feeling ok enough I might head down to the YMCA but I'm not going to push myself hard back into my old training schedule. I've decided I really like half marathons. Don't get me wrong I am still floating on cloud 9 from running Eugene and I WILL do more full marathons but back to back is just too exhausting. I have so much more going on in my life right now that needs a majority of my attention. Plus with training for a marathon I focused so much on running I stopped doing other forms of exercises that I enjoyed- I didn't have time for it all. Half Marathons are a distance that require training but I can fit into my lifestyle. I can do an insanity a few days before a training run and not be worried about destryoing my quads for my long runs. Ten miles takes a much smaller chunk out of the morning than 20 miles, plus it's cheaper- don't need as many GU's! :) Maybe I'll take this summer to work on speed. Still planning on hitting 800 miles, but it's going to be with lots of 5 milers, not 18's! 



Pre. Inspiration to be SPEEDY!



I am signed up for RNR Seattle June 22nd. I haven't 100% jumped ship and decided to tone down to the half but the thought has crossed my mind. I am however completely skipping Green River on June 1st. I might take that day to fit in an easy jog with my dad and help him prepare for his first half marathon in October. He still hasn't signed up but it's in the talks and my fingers are crossed. I plan on running Eugene marathon again next April but I'm not going to even look into another marathon before then. Afterall most people don't even run one single marathon in their lifetime and I've already crossed it off my bucketlist.

New Goal: Marathon Maniacs

Well hello there....I've been slacking on posting lately. Oops. I haven't had much exciting news to share lately, but this weekend a few things did come up.

Friday after work I decided to re-join Weight Watchers. I signed up in November but only did 1 month because the meetings were interfering with my long runs so I promptly cancelled thinking, "what is the point of doing WW if I can't run?!?!" So I re-joined to give it a fair shot this time around- and chose a different meeting time. Working out is NOT my problem, but nutrition is. I love to eat. I love to eat everything. I love to eat all the time. I know what to do to make the weight come off but haven't been following through so I'm hoping weighing in weekly and being accountable to a program (with witnesses) will re-spark my desire to dedicate my actions to hitting 100 lbs weight lost! I also think counting points is a lot easier than couting calories. I'll let you know how things turn out week by week of course.

After I weighed in at WW I headed home to pick up James and the girls so we could head to my Ragnar team meeting. If you haven't heard of Ragnar either google it or just wait until July when I will have a plethora or stories and pictures to share with you ;) I ran it last year and it was such a fun experience. I

started putting a team together back in November to ensure I could fill all 12 slots. At the time I didn't know I had so many friends that ran, but we filled up right away. So Friday was our third meeting and we decided to do a night time 3-miler. Well I didn't plan it perfectly- we didn't run out of daylight when we expected but I still wore my reflective vest.


Stole the pic from Diana :) I'm rocking my marathon tank again!


Saturday I went for my first long run since the marathon. Ouch, this was a toughie for me. I had a mental break down complete with tears, complaints, and a car ride to the "finish line." I met up with LaRee, Diana, Melanie and Dorothy (not pictured) at 7 am. We were all doing different distances, LaRee and Melanie knocking down 23, Diana and I were planning on 13 and Dorothy had 8 miles in her plan. The first 6 miles were fine, not great, but fine. Some runs I have a high the entire time and some I just get through- this was more of the latter. Around mile 6.5 my legs just suddenly turned to lead and I felt like I couldn't do it anymore. Diana kind of hung back with me as LaRee and Melanie continued (I don't blame them- they still had hours of running to do) and I started crying. Not bawling but there were tears. Two weeks before after just finishing a marthon I felt on top of the world and now 6 miles was kicking my butt. Diana kept reminding me that we all have bad runs and maybe my legs needed more rest but it was frusterating as all heck to feel like I was disappointing myself AND holding her back. I waved her on but she kept circling back to check on me and we finally just called her husband so I could catch a ride. We were running a point to point route so the plan was for him to pick us up and drive us back to our cars anyway but now he was having to come get me early :( We were at the 9.5 mile mark when he found us on the road. Ironically he found us literally right as our route started downhill, bummer I missed the "easy" part of the run.



Again, stole from Diana. I only ran the first 9.5 miles- look at that HILL!

 Diana finished her 3.5 miles and I stretched at the Poulsbo Waterfront Park. The sun had started to peak out from behind the clouds (even though it was super muggy when we started), so I just sat on a bench soaking it in. This is only my second ever totally miserable run - read about the first here- so I guess I have to take things in perspective. I've been running for years, had MANY good experiences, ran a freaking marathon.....my legs are allowed to be tired now and then! I need to be thankful that I can run at all and that I still burned a lot of calories because I needed that defecit to partake in BBQ and Mothers Day feasts all weekend :)

So that brings me to the title of this blog post: Marathon Maniacs. I ran Eugene 4/28, am signed up for RNR Seattle 6/22 so I fit 1 more marathon in there I qualify to Marathon Maniacs based on the 3 marathons in 90 days criteria! I signed up for Green River Marathon on 6/1 and will be running this soley as a training run (no racing!). It'll be my long run between Eugene and RNR since last week ended up with 9.5 being my longest, and this weekend I am running a 1 mile "race" with my 4 year old on Saturday. I wanted to try and talk my brother/dad/husband to alternate running a few miles with me Sunday to add up to a grand total of 15 pour moi, but I just realized, as I'm typing this, that my brothers actual birthday is Sunday. We are celebrating with a dinner that night but the fun "you're finally 21 celebration" will take place Friday night at a comedy club, pending finding a babysitter for my girls.

I find myself rotating between really wanting to keep running marathons and then thinking that these 3 might just be it for me. Marathon training takes a ton of time and I'm able to full engage in other activities I like such as spin, insanity, heavy ST, because I'm trying to keep my legs fresh for long weekend runs. Have any of you found the secret to doing "it all"? Let me know !

Blackberry Lemonade and Blueberry Streusel

I'm officially obsessed with blackberry lemonade. I went shopping at grocery outlet two days ago and scored (yes it feels like I scored it) two bottles of Minute Maid light lemonade. 15 calories per serving and only 2 grams of sugar, for 99 cents each! I'm a huge lemonade fan but have a hard time finding a light version that I really like and I was really impressed with this one. Anyway, tonight I finished the last of the 2 bottles. It wasn't all me, the family shared both bottles, but even if I had drank an entire bottle (7 servings) that is only 105 calories and 14 grams of sugar. It's not best to drink your calories but even with that considered this is a much better option than sodas or sugary juices. So with dinner tonight I decided to finish the lemonade off and throw in some squished up blackberries. YUM! It was fantastic. I know it's not like some super original concoction but considering 95% of the time I just chose to drink water, to me this was heaven in a glass. I am dying to make another trip back to grocery outlet but after a Costco trip tonight I should stay far far away from stores. Even though there are only 4 of us (and 2 being under the age of 5), I have to stock up like I'm feeding an army and it is expensive. I spend probably double what I can comfortably afford on groceries. My mother is always amazed when I tell her we go through a Costco pack of apples in 4  days, while hers end up going bad weeks later. Even if I don't have the money for it I always find myself buying tons and tons of fresh fruit because if I don't have those options in the house, I make unhealthy choices and end up with guilt and a larger waistline. Yes, canned veggies and frozen fruits are cheaper but they also aren't as appealing and I'm a food addict, it would be soooo easy for me to just choose making cookies or sending my husband to the store for ice-cream.

Costco trip tonight:
1 pack organic fuji apples
1 package kale slaw mix
1 package blackberries
2 packs bananas
1 pack corn (8 cobs)
1 pack daves killer bread (2 loaves)
1 pack black forest ham (3 containers)
1 6.5 lbs bag chicken breast
1 lemon blueberry streusel cake (ooops!)
1 workout tank top to be used for ragnar relay
1 book "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed 

Ok so I must defend the lemon blueberry cake- it was delicious for one, and the lady handing out samples told me that she freezes it so it lasts longer without going back and serves it cold in bite sized pieces. So maybe I just was going along with her idea because it tastes so darn good but I am going to attempt to follow the same plan and divide it into like 20 servings? I don't know....how many do you think I can get out of this bad boy? 2.75 lbs, uffffta.