weekly workout wrap-up

Posted on March 25, 2013 by HHRunner

so, that whole Sunday blogging thing. that’s a laugh, right? I would say that I didn’t blog yesterday because I was just far too busy, however that would straight up be a lie. all I did yesterday was:

1. laid in bed and forced sean to chat with me. sean loves when I wake up early and wake him up and talk his ear off about nothing. promise. when I did finally get out of bed and left him alone he promptly went back to sleep. and then yelled [<--- term used loosely] at me when I rescheduled my massage at 10am because I “disturbed his morning nap.” I don’t think it qualifies as a nap if you haven’t gotten out of bed yet.

2. got a massage. I feel like this is blasphemy, because any massage is better than not getting a massage at all, but it just was not that great, which annoys me.

3. wandered aimlessly around target. I bought this curling iron for, you know, all the times I’m curl my hair [read: never].

via – this actually might not be the one I bought, but it came from target, was on sale for $24.99 and looks sort of like that. which basically sums up all of the curling irons like that on the target website.

4. watched this movie:

via

[do not even try to debate with me about the fact that this is the greatest movie of all times. I do not not want to hear if you disagree.] also, sean made a shocking discovery during this movie.

via

Now, maybe it’s common knowledge that Inigo Montoya and Jason Gideon [that’s old school Criminal Minds for anyone who doesn’t regularly watch the show] are the same person, but I just had no idea.

5. that’s it. I watched about 15 episodes of duck dynasty in a row, followed it up with a healthy dose of Revenge and then went to bed. I even brought my laptop over to the couch next to me, but the thought of opening it and blogging was just overwhelming.

all that to say, my day was too exhausting to do this:

Monday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 1/4 mile repeats on the treadmill [PM] <— I feel like this isn’t going to happen. That’s pretty pitiful. We’ll see if I can drum up some motivation. 1.67 miles in the morning. and that’s it. so I did a stellar job of drumming up that motivation, obviously.

Tuesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], BodyPump [PM]. 3.77 miles in the morning of speed work. 5 min warm up, 20 min alternating 1.5 min hard with 1 min easy, 5 min cool down. BodyPump in the PM.

Wednesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], easy 45 minute run [PM]. 2.22 miles in the AM [20 min, not 15]. easy 5.12 miles around the neighborhood after work.

Thursday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Jillian Michaels 6 Week 6 Pack [PM]. 2.91 miles before work [25 min, not 15]. Jillian 6 week 6 pack after.

Friday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Friday 5k [PM]. 1.77 miles in the morning. 3.1 in the afternoon.

Saturday: Run with the running group [wanting to hit a total of 8-10 miles] + BodyPump. I’m just obsessed. 6.15 freaking terrible miles on the treadmill in the morning because I just couldn’t be bothered to get up in time for running group. then I took louie on a disastrous trip to the vet before heading to the gym and finishing up my run [3.28 mi] on the treadmill before a BodyPump class. Then I spent the night dancing and wedding-ing.

Sunday: Nothing. I have really high aspirations of being ridiculously lazy. NAILED IT.

All in all, it was a successful week, I think. I’ll be back at some point, either today or tomorrow, to set up this week’s workouts.

How was everyone’s weekend?? Anyone do anything fun?

What’s your favorite older movie?

Catching up with pictures

Posted on October 10, 2012 by HHRunner

First, thanks for all of your comments on yesterday’s post. They are VERY much appreciated.

There is absolutely no way to fully recap what I’ve been up to for the past, well, month because Sean and I have been on the go every. single. weekend. To say it’s been exhausting would be a massive understatement. I seriously don’t think we’ve ever been this busy. And honestly, it’s showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon. We have something going on every weekend for pretty much the rest of the year. So to try and do a mini catch up without actually rambling about every little thing (well, let’s be honest, I’ll probably ramble too), I’m gonna catch up with pictures Smile

Louie’s been sick on and off for about a month now. He’s mastered looking pathetic in the crate when he has to visit the vet. Don’t let this sad face fool you though, the vet called me one afternoon to tell me that he managed to terrorize the entire place and poop everywhere in protest at having to give a urine sample. Awesome. Proud mama right here <—insert sarcasm font.

The boy turned 27 last month. He’s getting old. We celebrated with sushi. It was delicious

Also, I feel like we might have gotten ripped off with our fortunes. I could be wrong though.

Sometime in September I stopped drinking coffee every morning and started having tea instead. I’m not really sure why. I go through phases. My favorite is the outrageously overpriced yogi tea. Mainly because of the wise advice they offer with every tea bag.

I’ve been running. I discovered a new-to-me trail on my way home from work one day. It looks like this. I love it because it’s right between two very busy roads but you once you step onto the trail you can’t tell at all. It’s very peaceful. Also, it goes on for days. I am a fan.

Here is a picture of Louie in a tiny box. If you’re wondering where Leo is, he was getting ready to pounce.

One of my friends from high school is getting married soon so we got to shower her with gifts during a recent bridal shower. She pretty much rocks. Also, I really like my dress. I got it on clearance at GAP outlet.

We’ve been hanging out with friends a lot. I love each and every one of these girls. I also will never be styling my hair like that again or wearing that outfit. The things you learn through pictures.

One of my best friends (the one standing next to me in the last picture) got married a few weeks ago. We had rockin’ bridesmaids outfits. You can’t really tell in this picture, but you can see the BEAUTIFUL Kendra Scott earrings she bought us. Also, I had my makeup airbrushed for the first time and decided that I want someone to come airbrush my makeup every day. Ironically, I am wearing zero makeup today.

In addition to running, I’ve been trying to do some crosstraining too. I’m not very good at it. Also, I am convinced that the people on the cover of Shape aren’t real. No one really looks like that, do they?

Sean has been racing motocross. Here is a picture of him dominating. Last weekend he raced twice and took 2nd and 3rd. He’s pretty much a badass.

I bought new shoes!! My Nikes had a million miles on them and I wanted to try a different type of minimalist shoe, so I decided to try out these Brooks. They look fast, so I assume that they will make me fast. Also, they were $10 cheaper than the Nikes. #priorities

To end, here is a picture of Louie in the microwave. I don’t know why he’s in there. I went to grab food out of it and while I was stirring it up he jumped in. He hung out there for a good 15 minutes while Sean and I laughed and took pictures. We have really exciting lives, promise.

And now you’re caught up, because Louie in the microwave was last night. Exciting stuff, huh?

What have you all been up to? Anyone run in Brooks Pureconnects? Any favorite minimalist running shoes?

People that hold you accountable

Posted on July 10, 2012 by HHRunner

Edit to add: I forgot to mention!!! I guest posted over at my friend Melissa, who blogs at Mouthwatering Morsel, today!! You can find my guest post on healthy travel tips here!

So, in case you were wondering, which I’m sure you were, I did in fact work out after work yesterday (before I edited the post that said tomorrow, not yesterday. guess who’s ready to go home for the day!!). And while I may have hated the first 5 minutes of it (seriously, it started out a little brutal) I was happy that I did it by the end.

I spent a long time yesterday texting Britt back and forth about working out (for those of you that don’t know Britt, she used to blog over at fitchickbritt.com … I like to think she’s just on an extended hiatus right now, and will come back to blogging eventually Winking smile ) Britt and I have been running together and hanging out for a little over a year now, and she is the very first person that I turn to when I need someone to tell me to suck it up and get the workout over with.

Yesterday was no exception. I came up with a million excuses as to why I couldn’t work out and then after several texts back and forth lamenting the fact that neither of us was very motivated, she told me we really had no excuse.

So we did.

Ditto, friend.

It also helped that when I walked through the front door I heard the familiar whirring sound our treadmill makes. I walked into our gym and Sean was running. Sean does not workout in the “hit the gym” sense on a regular basis, and runs or lifts weights once a week at most. If even he could work out yesterday then Britt was right, I had no excuse.

Having friends like Britt who are there for a friendly nudge in the right direction are instrumental for me in staying motivated and on track. I can’t even explain how many missed workouts might have occurred if I didn’t have someone to hold me accountable and remind me that it’s always worth it. I think having someone you can always rely on to give you a push when you need it is crucial at times.

Do you have someone that keeps you accountable?

forced rest day

Posted on May 29, 2012 by HHRunner

this weekend was pretty jam-packed for me, but despite not really having a spare second to myself I still managed to fit in some good workouts and get a a lot done. oh and have fun, I did a lot of that too!

friday sean and I had a wedding to attend – his BFF’s little sister (who I adore) married her high school sweetheart. she was absolutely stunning, and her whole wedding was a beautiful mix of classiness and elegance.

we ended up crashing at his parents house because the wedding was out in sugar land & sean had an early morning wakeup call (4:15!!) to go to dallas with his dad. I, on the other hand, stayed in bed til 7 (I know, late sleeper here) and then spent the morning drinking coffee and chatting with my lovely MIL. from there I was going to have a relaxing day running errands…

kicked off the day with a shot of wheat grass & a smoothie

HA. saturday was one of those days where everything took about 10 times longer than I allotted time for and I didn’t end up walking through my front door until 7:30pm… I did manage to fit in a 45 minute, hilly bike ride at the gym though, a plus to keeping workout clothes and shoes in your car. when I did finally eat dinner it was in about 5 minutes flat so I could finish up a few things around the house before sean got home. at 9:30 this happened:

is there really much better than an empty house, a glass of wine, a book, and a bubble bath? methinks NO.

unfortunately about 3 seconds after I sunk down into the bath sean walked through the door and turned on the TV and took a shower. #silenceshattered

sunday started out like this:

1 mile swim, 1 mile walk

random funny story: as I’m walking out the door to the gym in my workout swimsuit and shorts (no shirt, so you could see my swimsuit) this conversation occurred:

S: are you going to swim at the gym today?
Me: nope, going for the elliptical.
S: I hate you.

and ended with one of my best friends & her fiance, and sean’s old roomie and his girl, and this:

memorial day weekend should always be spent with close friends and the river.

and yesterday I had a freakin’ cardio party at the gym. 20 min stair stepper, 20 min elliptical, 20 min bike, 30 min walk. followed by a lot of arm lifting with the boy:

needless to say, when I woke up this morning I thought about doing some yoga but decided to wait until after work. when I got home from work I promptly turned around and flew out the door so that I could vote before it got crazy. and when I got home from that I reminded myself that while I am feeling a million times better than I was a month ago I am still injured and I have to take rest days.

taking rest days is really hard for me. I like being active and rest days always make me feel sluggish. but I need them, especially while I’m still recovering. I think part of dabbling in endurance sports is understanding that need to work out, to push yourself, and coming to terms with the realization that you have to give yourself a break from time to time. today was that day for me. even if I had to constantly force myself to do something else to keep from fitting in a short workout. like the ironing. finally got that ish out of the way today thanks to needing to distract myself from my treadmill. and while I may hate resting today, I’m pretty sure my knee is going to thank me tomorrow.

how was everyone’s weekend? anything fun happen? bad at taking rest days or good at it?

Phantom Pains

Posted on January 4, 2012 by HHRunner

Do you get them? Because they’ve overtaken my body right now. Sometimes my shin hurts, sometimes the inside of my right knee hurts, and sometimes my ankle hurts. Sometimes it’s a collective hurt and sometimes it’s just one or the other. Sometimes nothing hurts and it’s glorious (like right now).

Pull it together, body, we have a marathon to run in less than 2 weeks. Oh did you not know that? That I’m running the Houston Marathon in 2 weeks? Because I am. But you probably knew that already.

I tried to stretch out my body by going to yoga last night, but man that Megan is one tough chick and her yoga classes always have me panting by the end of it. I vote we change the class from “warm vinyasa” to “hot vinyasa” because I sweat more in that class then I do in some of the hot yoga classes which is crazy!

In other news I’m taking a mini road trip to see one of my best friends from college this weekend and I could not be more excited. I don’t even remember the last time I saw her, which is ridiculous.

Here we are at my wedding:

AAAANNNNND here’s a college throwback picture for ya:

That was a very long time ago.

Smile Happy Wednesday!

Do you keep in touch with your college friends? High school friends?

3 Things Thursday

Posted on December 22, 2011 by HHRunner

Today is actually my Friday which makes me gloriously happy. I have been sleeping less and less every day this week and I’m hoping that since I have no work tomorrow and I’m practically done with all things Christmas (except for wrapping and baking, two very minor things…) that I’ll get a decent amount of sleep tonight. Besides, who can be anything but ecstatic when Christmas is right around the corner?

1. I got an email a few days ago from Killer Infographics with this gem comparing male & female runners… I thought some of the stats on it were pretty interesting and that it was a fun little graphic so I thought I’d share with you guys too Smile

Running Music for a better running experience!

2. I ran a very reluctant 8 mile tempo run last night that ended up being fairly decent considering how tired I was – I was supposed to run 8 miles at an 8:40 pace and ended up running it at an 8:26 pace. I’ll take it! Also in running news, I am running 20 miles on Christmas Eve. This is going to be the most guilt free Christmas EVER!

3. I get to go have dinner and drinks with this lovely lady tonight and I could not be more excited. Candice, Sean and I spent a lot of time together in during our junior and senior year’s of college and despite the fact that we both live in Houston, I don’t get to see her nearly enough. (this is a throwback pic to college days… I don’t change much)

Sean is so rude, ruining a perfectly good picture like that.

If I’m not back between now and then – MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

3 Things Thursday

Posted on October 27, 2011 by HHRunner

Ahh it’s my favorite post of the week Smile Finally. Since I’ve been having issues with my days, I’m glad it’s actually Thursday this time around.

*This is more like 7 things Thursday, by the way*

1. Sean and I tried to go see 50/50 last night. I’m in the market for a good crying session, so this seemed like a good ticket to taking care of that. Unfortunately we got there, paid for out tickets, and on our walk to our theater one of the managers stopped us to direct us… and then told us the movie didn’t start til 9:50 (hello, I go to bed then, that will NOT work). Sean explained that the website said 7:30 and that’s when we found out that they were doing some special movie screening and so 50/50 at 7:30 got cancelled. Sad smile So we got a refund and went back home. Next time.

2. While Sean slept on the couch I took that as an opportunity to watch TV shows that Sean has no interest in (such as Modern Family… he is CRAZY). I watched the pilot episode for Once Upon a Time. Sold. I love it already. Can I please be involved in some sort of fairy tale world?! It is normal to be 25 and still wanting those things, right?

3. My 6 mile tempo run this morning was interesting, to say the least. I haven’t run on sore legs in a while, so my legs were a little tired today. Not heavy, just sore and tired. Since I’m blogging I’m sure you can all surmise that I made it in one piece. I knew Britt & I’s epic return to strength training would be dotted with little hurdles to overcome, so I’m glad the first one is out of the way. Bring it.

4. I think I need new running shoes Winking smile I’m actually not sure how many miles are sitting on my current ones so it’s possible that I really do need some new ones soon. While I’m at it, I should probably get some new running leggings, right? I mean, for the upcoming cold weather, naturally.

5. I’m obsessed with Pandora. I listen to it all day long.

6. I am really tired of TV shows stereotyping Texas. It’s annoying. We do not wear cowboy hats all the time and I don’t even think I have a Texas accent. (Actually on more than one occasion I’ve been asked if I’m from the north, which is weird because I am a born and raised Houstonian… the farthest I’ve gotten in terms of living outside of Houston is when I went to college in San Marcos and promptly upon graduating I moved back.) The Mentalist, which is one of my favorite TV shows just made Texas look ridiculous and shortly before that Sean and I watched a Boston Legal episode which cast Texas in a bad light. I don’t even own a real cowboy hat. And I love my state. So you can take your stereotypes away now, kthanks.

7. To the person who keeps searching “is motocross healthy” and landing on my blog – I really have no idea. I mean, I know it’s a pretty good workout (at least Sean says it is, he always is “so sore” afterwards) but it’s kind of dangerous too – you know, the whole flying around a track on a dirt bike thing where you risk running into people and wrecking and stuff like that… Sean’s been to the hospital multiple times because of it, so take that for what you will… But sure, I guess it’s healthy. Winking smile

Ok now you can give me one or three or even seven things.

Weekend Highlights-Phone Photo Edition

Posted on October 25, 2011 by HHRunner

This weekend was fantastically low-key and I took zero photos with my camera, largely due in part to a missing camera charger. I need to get some pictures off my phone, so today’s post is going to be a photo dump from the weekend Smile

FRIDAY

I consider Friday the *official* weekend start, mainly because it started with this:

Wanna know what that is?! THAT, my friends, is a lovely little package chock full o’ surprises from the awesome Jenny who blogs at The Little J-Bird. She seriously hooked it up:

Blog friends rock. She’s gonna do a little winter swap too, so everyone should join because getting gifts from internet strangers is awwwesome. Naturally. THANK YOU JENNY!!!!!

Sean and I had to go buy a new plant for our front flower garden so the lame HOA would stop sending us nasty-grams about how it was empty. Because we didn’t realize it was empty til they told us – so glad they pointed it out! Not like we weren’t working on making it awesome or anything.

We didn’t buy any pumpkins (sad face) but I did get this really neat picture:

We spent the rest of the night watching Boston Legal and being 65 years old. NBD.

SATURDAY

Saturday I attempted to have a great long run by not eating breakfast beforehand or fueling during it. I don’t know why it was so bad. I tried to find Tara during it, but instead just creeped on a whole bunch of people who I thought might be her. One lady just about bit my head off for running up behind her like that (but I had been POSITIVE it was Tara… oops). At least I got these:

The rest of the day I spent running errands until I went for a dress fitting for Sarah and Kenneth’s wedding. Then we met Kenneth and Sean at Stat’s for a few drinks and I reverted back to being 65 and was tired by 9:30. Kenneth expressed his desire to be named in my blog, so I am giving a big shout out to him Smile And since I don’t have any pictures of him on my phone, here is one courtesy of Facebook (I hope you’re happy Kenneth):

SUNDAY

Sunday was all around awesome as you can see from my Mexican Tortilla Lasagna post, however what that post left out was that we started the day with this:

Smile

MISCELLANEOUS

And just because I like these pictures…

Leo drinking water:

L&L in their house:

Cool lights at a bar in Vegas:

How was everyone’s weekend?

Things I’m Thankful For

Posted on October 21, 2011 by HHRunner

I was in a pretty pessimistic mood yesterday (I know you’re probably shocked considering I started with 3 bad things on yesterday’s post). So in an effort to circumvent that today, I’m going to focus on the things that I’m thankful for right now.

1. I’m thankful for blogging because it’s given me new friends:

- Even though Britt and I went to school together, we didn’t actually start hanging out (working out together = hanging out, right? Right.) until we started swapping blog comments. I ran my first double digit run with her and talk to her just about every day now.

- Melissa and I talk all the time now and would have never even met (“met” used loosely because we’ve actually never met… this is not weird at all) but now I consider her a good friend (that I only talk to via internet. nope not weird AT ALL)

- Jenny and I just did a running swap (more on that this weekend or Monday!) which resulted in me getting a delightful little package in the mail (and Jenny you should be getting yours soon!! you are just way faster than me at mailing things out)

- Heidi and I reconnected after several years

…and that’s just to name a few.

2. I’m thankful for getting the heck out of my comfort zone

- Nicole just wrote a fantastic post about thinking BIG. If you had told me 5 years ago that I would be training for a marathon I’d have laughed out loud at the thought. I hated running. And now it’s all I think about. Every day I’m continually working to push myself farther out of my comfort zone and I never was one to do stuff like that. As corny as it sounds, running has completely changed my life for the better.

3. I’m thankful for my sweet husband

- My dad has told me multiple times that he is so thrilled with Sean and I’s marriage, which makes me tear up with happiness just thinking about it.

- Sean really is the most supportive husband. He has continually encouraged me to be a better person and I’d like to think I do the same for him. We’re totes besties.

4. I am thankful that after several very long years my best friend is moving back home

- My best friend since kindergarten is a military wife and they have lived in Virginia for years now. In December they’re moving back home. And there is nothing that makes me happier than that.

Tell me something you’re thankful for.

And go give my girl some love she’s having a bad day today

Busy Weekends = No Blogging

Posted on September 26, 2011 by HHRunner

Today’s workout: 2 mile walk before work, cardio-drum class tonight with mi madre

Ohhh heyyyyy there guys…

This weekend was pretty nonstop, which makes for little time to blog. And even if and when I had time, it was the farthest thing from my mind. Except for last night, when I sat down and opened up a new post and then immediately closed it out, because sometimes curling up on the couch with the husband is WAY more important than blabbing out all my thoughts.

Friday I only worked half a day at the office and then we were off to Austin (well, Georgetown actually) to celebrate some friends of ours wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, and a lot of fun to see a lot of faces we haven’t seen much as of late. I took a total of 2 pictures, none of which turned out well, so I’ll share these two with you which I stole from Facebook… thanks Emily

Saturday I was mega-hungover for reasons unbeknownst to me (I suppose it was that I mixed wine and beer, but honestly none of it equaled up to the unparalleled hangover I experienced on Saturday). My solution to any hangover is food, so I spent the entire day eating junk food (because let’s be honest, a salad never makes a headache go away, but french fries magically do). We drove back to Houston Saturday which, much as it sucked, was needed. Lots of Boston Legal happened after that and then lots of sleep.

I woke up Sunday ready to tackle a few things. One of which was 9 miles which went fairly well considering that it was 99% humidity out when I first checked Weatherbug on my phone. 99% is stupid, by the way. I held the same 8:58 average pace as the 8 miles from last week, even though a couple of those miles were a little rough and a couple were a little fast. After my run we cleaned up and went over to celebrate Sean’s grandmother’s birthday… HAPPY BIRTHDAY! before heading back home to do all the “adult” tasks in life… you know, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry… all that REALLY fun stuff.

I also decided that I’m doing a little experiment with my diet right now after last weeks “I’m feeling bad about my body” post, but that will have to wait until later to expand on. I can tell you that for now I’m focusing on eating tons of vegetables and protein and mega cutting back on sweets, alcohol, and carbs. So far, so good. I started Sunday and am feeling better (and healthier) than I have in a while. Amazing what two days of healthy eating will do for you.

So how was everybody’s weekend?

Any races? I am itching for a 5 or 10k PR, so one of those little races may be in my very near future.