Oh my lord, what have I done!

Well it's been far too long. Two years ago when I started this blog, I wanted to chronicle my personal journey to 26.2. Too bad I didn't realize, it takes a lot of training and hard work. I hurt my knee, gave up and never ran the Baltimore Marathon.

 However, all was not lost. In the last two years, I have run a half marathon, 3 15ks, 2 10ks, a sprint triathlon (I almost drowned) and even won 2nd place in my age group in a 5k.

Proof I haven't ONLY been eating ice cream this whole time!

 I was looking for my next running challenge and promised myself I would give up on long distances for awhile. Famous mistake, convincing yourself you don't want to run long distances while secretly keeping one eye on all of the upcoming half marathons and marathons. That's when I decided to do it, to REALLY train and run my first marathon. I chose the 2013 Disney Marathon for the following reasons:

• It's the Disney Marathon's 20th anniversary and the course changes really peaked my interest. Check out this awesome course overview, I think this might've been what sold me. Darn you Mickey!

• It's 9 days before my 30th birthday.  I really think this would be a great way to end my 20s...without toenails while gaining a new, awesome limp.  Either way, I'm celebrating being old and being able to run long distances.

Lundy's always down to celebrate a birthday..
just don't make him  run 26.2!

• I've always wanted to run a Disney race and I figured I would just go for the big one and work my way down.  Last year I was going to run the Princess half (definitely considering it again this year if I survive marathon training) but I wasn't in running shape, and didn't want to spend the money as I was unemployed at the time.
• Finally, I'm just plain crazy and I've always had the itch to run a marathon.  Please note, if you would've asked me to run a marathon after completing my first half, I would've told you that you were crazy. 

So that's it, I hope you will follow my journey.  There will be tears, there will be complaints, there will be lots of pictures of my dog but I promise you, I will prevail, and I will reach my goal if I have to drag myself across that finish line.  Wish me luck please...I need it!

Slackerrrrrrr

Wow, sorry it's been so long. With the Holiday last weekend, the time has really flown by. Here are the highlights from the last week...

Thursday Night...Book Club
Thursday was our first meeting over our first book, Sarah's Key. The consensus of this book was that it was well written, taught us all something, and was pretty darn depressing! I'm excited to start our next book and am really happy that Megan from Eat, Scrap, Run started it!

Saturday... Easter Doggie Walk
This is the second year that I have done this walk which benefits the Dunedin Doggie Rescue and we had a blast. It was a little stressful this year, I don't think Lundy was feeling well and kept having to take breaks. Overall though, we had a really fun time and best of all one of the dogs in our group, Big Tony, won "Best Personality!"

GROUP Picture:




Sunday.....Easter!

So much food consumed! I was in charge of dessert this year and I made the Pioneer Woman's recipe, Sigrid's Carrot Cake. It was sooooooo amazing! I totally forgot to take a picture of it but believe me it was beautiful.


The rest of the week has been pretty much a blur! I decided to take the week off from running after a painful attempt at a long run on Sunday. The Iron Girl is this weekend and I thought maybe fresh legs would help me to meet my goal...then my knees and hamstring started bothering me. I'm feeling extremly frustrated but trying to remain somewhat positive. Tomorrow I'll be picking up my racepack! I do love the Iron Girl!!! My next report will be my race results...wish me luck!!!

Dirt, sweat and tears!

Last week was amazing! I was on top of the world and felt like a million dollars! This week, not so much! I didn't have a great eating weekend and skipped my Saturday run and now I'm paying for it this week! I also didn't track my calories as I said I would...booooo me!

It also didn't help that I had a terrible run on Tuesday night. I was supposed to walk a mile, run 20 minutes, walk 5 minutes and run another 20x5 interval. Immediately, as I began to run I had to use the restroom (strike 1). Then when I took out my iPod shuffle, I found that one of my headphones was broken (strike 2). I brought along my handsome running partner, my dog Lundy, and he was not behaving and kept wanting to use the bathroom while we were running (strike 3). Then my pants wouldn't stay up and I repeatedly had to tug at them while the broken headphone was banging me in the face(strike 4). At this point I was pretty frustrated but didn't want to give up until... my calves and feet started killing me (strike 5). I struck out...big time! I decided to call it a day and turn back when the overwhelming frustration slapped me in the face and tears started stinging my cheeks. Why can't I do this? What do my legs hurt? Why is this still so hard?

I decided that I wasn't going to talk down to myself and started saying...today just isn't your day...at least you got out and did some activity. To tell you the truth, I didn't believe it but saying it over and over did soften the blow.

Today is much better and I have almost forgotten about my run last night. I had an amazing workout in the park with my trainer, Sam, and the other awesome, inspiring girls from my work. Sometimes it's fun doing crazy things in the grass and getting nice and dirty! My shoes were caked with mud and my pants were super dirty!

This weekend, I will be purchasing my running outfit for the Iron Girl. I have to find some new pants! Ahh!!! I want these but I'm worried about them not being flattering even though I know they will be super comfortable! http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/womens/apparel/bottoms/capris/pid1208158-Women-s-Advanced-Moisture-Transport-Capri/1208158-001

Does anyone have any suggestions on running pants or headphones/ear buds?

Eggplant is Delicious!

Tonight I made the most fantastic recipe I found on the Beyond Salmon Blog. I just bought a new George Foreman this weekend (thanks for the sale Target!) and really wanted to grill up some veggies that were starting to go south in my fridge. I googled "grilled eggplant" and found this recipe. It was soooo good and easy! I will definitely be making it again. Tonight I served it with a side of spaghetti squash and marinara. Below are my adjustments to the recipe:

First, you must sweat the eggplant. I always slice mine up, salt both sides and leave it in the colander in the sink for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, wipe off the eggplant "sweat" with a paper towel. Then dip the egg plant on both sides in the marinade below.

1 eggplant
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper

I then threw them on the Foreman for about 8 minutes or so until they got nice and brown.

Below is my training schedule this week:
Monday: Personal Training with Sam
Tuesday: Walk 1 mile, run 3 - walk 2, 10 times
Wednesday: Personal Training with Sam
Thursday: Walk 1 mile, run 15 - walk 5, 2 times
Friday: Personal Training withe Sam - Walk 1 mile, run 5 - walk 2, 5 times
Saturday: Walk 1 mile - Run 10, walk 5, 3 times

So far this week has been fantastic and I've been in a great mood all week!!!

Happy training to everyone!!!

Small Changes

They say small changes eventually lead to results. This weekend, I mindlessly snacked on any and everything at my parent's house like I was storing up for hibernation. Today, when I stepped on the scale, I was 5 pounds heavier! SAY WHAT???? 5 POUNDS, WHERE DID YOU COME FROM? So this week, I re-commited to tracking everything I eat. I have previously used the LiveStrong.com site to track calories, but I'm finding that I REALLY like SparkPeople.com! When I first looked at their site, I didn't get it, too many articles, too much information, and I didn't really see the flow. However, once you sign up and create an account (it's free) it really makes sense.




I'm even enjoying their daily emails! So I've been logging away and at the end of the week, I'll share my Daily Feedback!



Last week's running didn't really happen at all, I saved my longish run for Sunday and it practically rained all day! Boo! This week I'm back at it with the trainer and back on schedule with the running!

New Year's Resolutions

In the beginning of 2010 I made some New Year's resolutions. Along with running a marathon, exercising and generally living a healthy existence, I vowed to read 1 book a month. This may or many not have something to do with my general obsession with being like Rory Gilmore. So far, this year, I've kept on track! I asked for only books for my Birthday and as a result I now have a huge stack to read. Below are the books I've read so far this year and my reviews.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto- This book was very eyeopening and made me think completely differently about food. While slightly over-scientific at some points, the main arguments were very worthwhile for those that are interested in eating real, actual food!

Sarah's Key - While this isn't a book I probably would've picked out to read, this is for a book club meeting in April, I did enjoy it....for the most part. I'll save my full opinion for the Book Club Meeting.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - I am so, so, so, so loving this book. I'm only a 1/4 of the way through and I keep fighting with myself to put it down and go to work and do normal human things. I think I will be finishing this one very soon!

What types of books do you like to read?

She's BAAAAACK!

Wow, it's been awhile. I didn't really have anything to post as I was being a super slacker and eating tons of food thus not leaving me much time to workout! :)

Meanwhile, after running the Belleair Classic extremely slow, I have kicked the training up a notch to make sure I'm ready to start the marathon training. My official marathon training begins the week of June 13th and until then I'm working on being able to run 3 miles comfortably. Currently, I can run three miles but it is not easy and it's extremely, extremely slow.

I started over with the fitness.com couch to 5K program I used on my first 5K to prepare for the Aflac Iron Girl in Clearwater on April 10th. My goal is to run it in under 35 minutes (I ran the Belleair Classic in 37 minutes :(). My PR for a 5k is 33:17 which was 2 years ago at the GunAllen Financial.



My lord! I wish I was still that skinny and tan!

I also started working 3x a week with an awesome, inspiring personal trainer. This has been my first week and I am dying! So sore, but I feel fantastic!

My training schedule this week is as follows:

Monday: Training with Sam 1 hr
Tuesday: Walk 1 mile, run 10 mins, walk 5 mins, run 10 mins, walk 5 mins
Wednesday: Killer workout in the park with Sam
Thursday: walk 3-5 miles
Friday: Workout with Sam 1hr - walk 3-5 miles
Saturday: walk 1 mile, run 10 mins, walk 5 mins, run 5 mins, walk 5 mins, run 10 mins, walk 5 mins

I just have to keep reminding myself that I'll get there! One day at a time!