Monday Moves… on Tuesday

Posted on March 26, 2013 by HHRunner

Another week, another plan in place. I had a really bad day mentally yesterday. You know those days where you just all around don’t feel good about yourself, but there’s really no good reason for why you feel that way? That was me. Everything was getting on my last nerve.

You know what makes a bad day better? Having a ridiculously awesome mom + husband. My mom listens to me lament all of my problems all the time. I just don’t know how I got so lucky. And my husband? He just rocks.

When it comes to our interests, Sean and I are decidedly different, but the same. I love working out in any way, shape or form. Sean loves motorcycles like I love working out. We both love being outside. Yesterday when I got home from work he asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride. For anyone who doesn’t know us personally – we have a grand total of 6 bikes in our garage – two regular bikes, one motorcycle, two dirt bikes and a mini dirt bike. It was a beautiful day, so I enthusiastically agreed. I went and pulled on jeans, boots and my jacket and went to meet Sean in the garage. He was wearing workout shorts and Nikes. We both looked at each other like the other person was crazy.

He thought we were going on a regular bike ride. I thought he meant a motorcycle ride. Miscommunication at its finest. In case you’re wondering, we went on a regular bike ride. [Pointless story of the day – check.]

Moving on… This week is [hopefully] going a little something like this:

Monday: Run 15 minutes [AM], BodyPump (heavy) [PM]

Tuesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 6 mile run [PM]

Wednesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 2-3 mile run + Happy Hour Spin Class (doesn’t that just sound fun? Put “Happy Hour” in the title of anything and I’ll probably think it’s a good idea) [PM]

Thursday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Jackie Warner Total Body Circuit Training [PM]

Friday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Friday 5k [PM]

Saturday: 10 miles. I haven’t had a solid double digit run in a while. It’s time. + BodyPump (light)

Sunday: REST DAY = the BEST day.

Two things I’m obsessed with right now: easy runs and BodyPump. I’m trying to hit around 30 miles each week, but I’ve realized lately that I’m not even really sure why. I think I’ve gotten so used to feeling like I have to hit a certain mileage during training. On the other hand, I really want to up my strength training. It’s put me in a strange place where I’m not really sure what to do. Suggestions?

Psssttt… I have a secret!

Posted on October 16, 2012 by HHRunner

Yesterday was all about celebrating little successes, but today it’s about celebrating a semi-big one.

You see, I have a secret. Saturday I did something that I haven’t done since January 15, 2012.

But first let me back up a bit…

Since I started running again I’ve approached it very differently then I did pre-injury. I started heart-rate training at the urging of my doctor, which has made for some pretty slow (miserable) runs. If you’re unfamiliar with heart rate training, in a nutshell you have a max heart rate that you can hit while you’re running. You aren’t allowed over that heart rate during your run. Essentially, you train your body over time to run faster and faster while maintaining the same heart rate. Sounds easy enough, right? Except it’s not that easy. In fact, it’s hard and it sucks. The first time I ran by my heart rate I clocked in a 13 minute mile. For me, that’s painfully slow. Like, I want to sit down and cry slow.

But I’ve kept at it. Every Tuesday I go out and run 5 miles. The first Tuesday of each month, I compare the splits from that 5 mile run with the previous month’s 5 mile run. And at the beginning of October something magical happened – I got faster. To give you a taste of what I mean without getting too far into heart rate training, here are the splits from September and October:

Month 1: 9:29, 9:59, 10:51, 11:50, 12:18
Month 2: 9:04, 9:31, 9:50, 10:18, 10:22

So I’m getting faster.

Now that I’ve explained how I’ve been running, it’s time to get to the good stuff. On September 10 an email hit my inbox that made the wheels in my head start to turn.

I ran the FBC Greater Things 10k last year and PRed at it. And I started to think, what if I ran this race – which is ridiculously small, right by my house, and no one has to know I’m running it – and I PRed at it again. I weighed the pros – it’s close, it’s cheap, I could back out of it if I wanted, and I would tell no one so there would be no pressure – and then the cons – what if I was still hurt, what if I did terrible – and ultimately decided to pay the 10k entry fee (it was like $25) and then if I ended up not racing it was no big deal.

I debated back and forth all month. Remember: I haven’t run a single mile faster than a 9 minute pace in months. I got super nervous. I thought about not running it.

Finally, I went to see Dr. Hinson Thursday on my lunch break for a pre-race tune-up where he told me to run the race for fun, not for time (AND I MET LEXY!!). I laughed out loud. I am way too competitive to ever run a race “for fun.” I continued to consider not going.

Friday night I ended up going to bed early and Saturday morning I woke up a bundle of nerves. What if I had completely forgotten how to race? What do people even take to races? WHAT IF I BONKED?! What if I had to stop and walk? What if I PRed…

Looking at a race map for the first time in 10 months isn’t intimidating AT ALL. Wait, how do I read one?!?!

I went through the usual rituals – bagel, peanut butter, banana, bathroom, warm up mile on the treadmill, wake up Sean, get out the door, drive over to the race, try to ignore the butterflies in my stomach…

And we waited. And waited. The race ended up starting about an hour late (con of being a small race that is a family fun run and not a serious race) and before I knew it I was toeing the start line for the first time in almost exactly 10 months.

Probably one of the most flattering pictures of me ever taken. Here I am, just awkwardly standing around, picking at my fingernails. Where do I go? The front? The back? Where is everyone? Do you like my shoes!?!

I lined up near the front and waited as they counted down…

Time to say a prayer. PRAY PRAY PRAY THINK MOTIVATIONAL THOUGHTS PRAY PRAY PRAY!!!

…and then we were off.

Everyone else is starting their watch, so I shall too! Also, I am starting to smile BECAUSE I’M FREAKING STOKED!!! I’M RACING!!!

And I felt like I was flying. And then I looked at my watch and realized I was… 7:21? You need to slow down.

There I gooooo!!!!

I reigned it in, let some people pass me and settled into a comfortable, quick pace. Miles 1-3 I was focused solely on maintaining a sub-8 pace and enjoying the scenery.

Mile 1: 7:44
Mile 2: 7:51
Mile 3: 7:53

Around the halfway point I started a mental battle that stayed with me for the next two miles. I kept telling myself that I was done, that I couldn’t sustain that pace because I have been running slow – not fast – for months, and that I should just give up. I countered all of that by arguing that the mind gives up far before the body does, that I was capable of doing this, and that I needed to catch the girl in front of me.

Mile 4: 8:01 – caught the girl and passed her
Mile 5: 7:59

At mile 5 I started doing fast math in my head, which is not easy considering I am a writer, not a math person. I figured out I could still PR and I freaking lost it. I got so excited that not even the fact that I felt like I couldn’t possibly speed up was enough to hold me back. I started trying to speed up, passing the 5k runners left and right.

Dr. Hinson!! Do you see me?!?! NO HEEL STRIKING!!

I turned the corner into the parking lot that the race ended in and I almost cried.

Mile 6: 7:33

Dr. Hinson!!! CHECK OUT MY FORM!!!

At that point I started sprinting. When I saw the time clock my stomach dropped out of my body and I broke into a huge grin while pumping my fist.

Last 0.2: 6:51

I was too fast for Sean to even catch me cross the finish line. OK, if you look closely you can see me dying behind the left hand pole of the finish line.

Overall time: 47:05
Last year’s time: 48:54

I have never been more grateful for my body allowing me to run in my life. This race was far from perfect – I clearly have a lot of mental work to do because it was a battle – but it proved to me that the way I’m training right now is working for me and that I still got it.

Monday Motivation

Posted on September 10, 2012 by HHRunner

I’ve been on a teensy bit of a hiatus the past week. Getting back into the swing of things, especially blogging, wasn’t easy after being on a cruise for 5 days, and I spent the majority of last week playing catch up at work. But it’s time for a fresh start and another round of some Monday motivation.

This weekend I had one of the best runs that I’ve had in a loooong time. I got up Sunday morning to ideal running temperatures – which I’m sure you’ve heard from any runner living in Houston – and drove over to the park to cover 11ish miles. They weren’t my fastest 11 miles, but I felt good and I loved every single step I took. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to say that.

I’m in a bit of a weird spot with running right now. My primary focus at the moment is building up endurance again, and my speed is decreasing by the day. I finally had to stop posting my times on DailyMile because it was getting to be too much for me to handle when it came to drawing comparisons against myself and other runners. While I wish I could say that pace doesn’t matter to me, that’d be a big, fat lie. I worked hard last year to get fast and it can be a little defeating to see all the gains I made disappear while everyone else is getting speedier, so until I’m feeling more confident in my pacing abilities I’m just going to focus on the distance. Eliminating my times from DailyMile has relieved a lot of pressure that I felt before, which is nice. I also am hesitant to get back into racing right now, so while I have a few races on my radar, I haven’t bit the bullet and signed up for anything yet. It’s going to be an interesting couple months, but I’m confident that everything is going to play out exactly how it needs to Smile . And (God-willing) hopefully the weather will stay nice so that us Houstonians can continue to enjoy some humidity-free, cooler running weather!

How’s the weather where you are? Good running temps, or still battling the heat?

FBC Greater Things Race Review

Posted on October 19, 2011 by HHRunner

I did a positively delightful job of carb-loading for this race. And yes, I realize that it’s a 10k and you probably don’t need to carb load, but I did and I did it well. Unfortunately for you I can’t really back that up with pictures, but suffice it to say I spent Thursday night at La Parmigiana eating bread and pizza made by angels and supplementing that with a glass of wine and then supplementing THAT with some frozen yogurt. BOOM. Carb-load Thursday happened. Then Friday I continued on my carb-session by making a very complex meal of Kraft Organic Mac ‘N Cheese and leftover corn bread. Oh and maybe a pumpkin beer. But don’t worry, it was healthy cause I added in frozen broccoli, frozen cauliflower and frozen peas. Which totally ramps up the nutritional value, obviously. I also made sure to not work out on Friday, so my legs were super fresh on Saturday morning… it had nothing to do with accidentally missing my yoga class because of stupid Friday traffic.

Since I can’t show you any of my delicious carbs, I’ll show you this instead… any time I try to take a picture of Leo he gets really close to the camera and is adorable… you’re welcome.

Saturday morning started the exact same way as every other race of my life – be it swimming or running – has started… with peanut butter and banana toast. This is a strategy I’ve been using for 20 years and it hasn’t failed me yet.

I set out around 6:15am to do a warm-up mile around the neighborhood. I am a huge fan of warm-up miles because my legs usually think I’m joking about running until we get through at least a mile and they realize I’m serious and they actually have to move somewhat quickly. I started in capris and when I got home I ditched those for tempo shorts instead, even though it was 60* out and felt amazing. I figured at some point I’d be hot (I was) so it was a good move. When I got home I woke my faithful photographer up and after loading him up with coffee we were off. There were quite a few races going on this weekend, but the FBC Greater Things race was so close to my house that it didn’t make sense to go anywhere else.

Now is a good time to mention that when I switched out of my capris and into tempos I couldn’t find any that matched my shirt (I didn’t look very hard). But I wanted to wear the same shirt because it’s loose and comfortable (ok and it was brand new, so it was begging to be worn – thank you Target clearance). So I don’t match. And I don’t care.

I am 100% convinced that I am ALWAYS going to be late to races so I made us leave the house at 7 so I had time to pick up my packet. The race didn’t start til 8:15-8:30 and it took us a whopping 10 minutes to get there… whoops. That left plenty of time to take pictures. Sean was trying to be artsy which is how we ended up with this gem:

and all together now:

Now is a good time to go ahead and tell y’all I was gunning for a PR and I was really aiming for a PR under 50 minutes. My last 10k went fantastically well and it was done in very hot, humid conditions. This time I was paired up with PERFECT running weather and I have been working really hard to improve my times, so I was hopeful. My stomach, however, was not having it and was in an all-out revolt. I stopped by the bathroom at the race at least 3 times, every time praying that my stomach would chill the eff out. I was also trying to be level-headed that I have been focusing on distance over pace and to not get disappointed if I didn’t PR. After some pretty discouraging 5k races, I opted to go for the 10k to give myself a mental break from beating myself up over not getting faster 5k times.

I can’t really say enough good things about this race. The volunteers were fantastic. Of course, I may be a little biased because Heidi was a volunteer

I have a knack for holding my hands in awkward positions. Here is another attempt at Sean being artsy:

And here’s further proof that I can’t keep my hands in normal positions:

Note that my sunglasses are on top of my head in all these pictures. This was a stupid mistake on my part because when I went to take them off the top of my head and put them on my face it also took my headband off so right when the race started I was busy putting it back in my hair as evidenced in the following picture:

This also means I started my Garmin a little late because I was busy messing with my hair. Lame. As you can see from the above picture, this was a really small race. Not a lot of people ran the 10k. It was an out and back course that started at the church, wound through a GORGEOUS neighborhood and then came back around. The setup was unparalleled to ANY race I’ve been to thus far. They had really nice and obvious markers every km so you knew where you were, they had several water stations set up that you passed more than once and the course itself was just plain awesome. I will be running there again VERY SOON. I started out way too fast per the usual – when I first looked down at my Garmin it read in the 6:xx minute pace, so I had to check myself and slow it down a bit (a lot). I backed off to about an 8:15 pace and tried to keep one guy in my sight. There was one girl that I knew of that was running in front of me and I knew before she did that she started off ambitiously – right before the race she said she was hoping to not come in last and when the race started she took off running like crazy.

After mile 1 I passed her. I felt fantastic. I hovered around the same pace for most of my miles and was really enjoying the scenery. Oh and another mishap: somehow my iPod got stuck on repeat of one song so I had to manually change it after every song. Kind of annoying but not detrimental. I kept telling myself that if I maintained an 8:15 pace I’d be on track to at least finish around the same time as my prior 10k PR and if I could speed it up a bit I’d PR. If I could speed it up to an 8 minute pace I’d come in under 50 minutes.

Now is a good time to mention that about mile 4.5 I was really worried that I was starting to lose steam. And then I thought of this lovely lady and I thought about her race where she decided she was just going to go all out the whole time. I pictured her and my sometimes-running partner Britt running with me and it boosted me up to go faster. I thought of Tara running her 21 miles that same morning and how proud I was of her and I thought of Heidi waiting at the finish line and how before I took off she told me that I better come in with no one around me and I better come in fast. So I picked it up.

I felt like I was flying the last mile. By the time I hit the main road that took us back to the church I felt like I was all out sprinting. When I rounded the corner to the finish line I saw Sean crouched down taking pictures (I adore him, have I mentioned that?).

I sailed through.

Official finishing time: 48:56

I could have cried I was so happy.

My Garmin clocked the course at 6.1 but I’m not sure if that’s because I cut the tangents really well (I did) or if it was just short (don’t care). Either way it doesn’t matter because I still would’ve come in under 50.

I was ecstatic.

One really big plus to small races, aside from not having to really worry about weaving and all that good stuff: I was the first woman finisher in the 10k. BOOM. There were some speedy folks here too – the first male finisher finished in 42 minutes.

Overall: I would definitely run this race again because the course was so beautiful and everyone was really friendly. It didn’t hurt that I won a free Chik Fil A tray in the raffle either. I am almost always bribed by food. The course was set up really well, there were plenty of water stations and they had people set up throughout the course to cheer you on. My one and only complaint: no chip timing.

Do you like big races or small races? I love smaller races. LOVE them.

Running on Rainbows

Posted on October 12, 2011 by HHRunner

Yesterday I had one of those runs. You know the kind. The kind that you go into thinking “gah, I don’t want to do this” and come out of thinking “holy crap, I AM AWESOME”.

I bet you didn’t know that:

1. I was so tall and Ryan Hall was so small

2. I run with the elites

But I’m getting ahead of myself…

It started at 5:30 yesterday morning. I crawled out of bed thinking about the six 800 repeats I needed to do and how I was going to knock it out in the morning. I fumbled around in the dark for a while before stumbling into the garage to grab my running shoes, which hadn’t moved since my rainfest run on Sunday. Much to my dismay, they were still damp. Now, I like to think that I can be (key words there: can be) a hardcore runner. I will schlep it out in the rain, brave 100 degree temps coupled with 100% humidity, and face blisteringly cold weather in the dark morning hours during the winter. I will trudge through a run even when I don’t want to and force myself to finish no matter what. I will get up at 4:30 in the morning to run a 20-miler before flying out to Vegas. But if I don’t have to run in damp shoes, I’m not going to. So I threw them in the dryer and decorated my house for Fall instead – clearly an even trade.

I knew that I was going to have to tackle it when I got home, but I pushed this thought as far from my head as possible all day. I prefer morning running, even though lately I’ve been slowly doing more and more of my runs after work. I blame this on pure laziness and the knowledge that I get home an hour and a half earlier than I did previously. The fact that I was up on time yesterday morning and couldn’t run irritated me.

Typically I don’t give myself any time to even debate the thought of running. Too much time spent thinking means not a whole lot of action for me. This means that as soon as I walk through that front door after work I am throwing my purse and lunchbox on the kitchen counters and tossing off clothes walking to the bedroom. Before I know it I’m either walking outside setting my Garmin or walking to the treadmill while going over my plan of attack – and I haven’t even had time to register that I’m about to run. And usually when I run after work I usually grab shotbloks to give me some pep. A girls’ gotta do what a girls’ gotta do.

Also, Clif, please feel free to send me some shotbloks to review. I will very willingly do so!

Yesterday I realized that I was completely out. Ugh. I also spent a good 10 minutes debating switching my speedwork with my tempo run before finally just sucking it up and going with the speedwork. I told myself that if I still wasn’t feeling 800 repeats after my warmup mile, I could still switch gears. I also ate sour cherry balls from who knows when (actually, I do know when, they’re from Funfest) to trick myself into thinking they were shotbloks (ok, maybe just to reward myself for being about to run. I KNOW you aren’t supposed to give yourself rewards for working out blah blah blah but I don’t agree and I fully believe in bribes with myself).

And then some magical happened. As I pounded through my first mile listening to some pretty rockin’ tunes I started smiling. Six 800 repeats at a 7:30 pace with a minute and a half “rest” (I run my “rests” at 8:34 in case you were wondering) in between? Pssshhhh. Child’s play. Ok, maybe not child’s play, but definitely doable.

I hit them all hard. I felt like I was flying. Just call me Kara Goucher, because I felt speedy. I flew through 6.4 miles in 55 minutes which gave me a MASSIVE surge of confidence for the 10k on Saturday.

Oh, I didn’t mention that? I’m running a 10k on Saturday. My previous 10k was a pretty glorious experience that I’m hoping to recreate in a few days. I have some silent time goals that I’m praying for, but I also am trying to go into it with a level-head and the mental check that I am currently marathon training and that doesn’t equal fast it equals distance. We shall see though.

Anyone else racing this weekend? I feel like it’s been forever since I last had a race… I’m excited!

Perfect days

Posted on October 1, 2011 by HHRunner

RUNNING

When I woke up this morning (at 3:50am mind you), I was less than pleased. When I still couldn’t fall back asleep and it was 4:45am, I just went ahead and got up. And then I walked outside and I could’ve cried tears of happiness.

Considering we have been battling 100 degree weather for MONTHS now, 62 felt like heaven. And all that irritated-ness from waking up so early vanished. I started laundry, washed the dishes, and then tip-toed back into my bathroom and put on my running gear. You better believe I am taking FULL advantage of this.

It’s been a long time since I’ve done an early morning run. Today reminded me EXACTLY why I love early morning runs.

Hitting the roads when it’s still dark out makes me feel like I have the world (ok, my neighborhood) to myself. It’s glorious.

Every single step I took I had a big, stupid smile on my face. I had 10 AWESOME miles and negative splits the entire time. My first mile was a 10:07 and I ended with an 8:21. I was giddy that it felt so good out. Running and not feeling like I was slogging through a swamp made me remember WHY I love running so much in the first place. Being done by 7:30am made me remember WHY I love early morning runs so much.

Because I had the first solid awesome run in WEEKS I treated myself to a non-fat pumpkin spice latte.

Be still my heart. You are amazing.

IN OTHER NEWS

1. My mom and I had a 3 hour dinner date at BJ’s Brewhouse last night. There were 3 of these involved and we had a fantastic time. My mom > everyone. Just sayin’. She’s awesome.

2. Jenny over at The Little J Bird suggested doing a fall running swap. If you don’t read her, start. And then email her and tell her a swap is a fabulous idea so we can shower each other with running stuff

3. Sean is racing again tonight, so I have to stop blogging and finish being productive.

How is the weather where you are?

DOESN’T COOL WEATHER MAKE RUNNING AMAZING!!??

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.

Counting Calories

Posted on September 14, 2011 by HHRunner

Tuesday’s workout: ROCKIN’ 5 miles of speedwork, 10 min warm up, 1 min @ 7:30 pace, 3 min @ 8:34 pace (repeat 6 times), 10 min cool down

Today’s workout: (will be) BODYPUMP and maybe some running or cardio. MAYBE.

Couple things

1. If you don’t like posts without pictures, this is not the post for you, except that I need your advice so please keep reading. Edit to add: I put in some old pics, so keep reading!

2. To all my BLOGGER friends! I can’t post on the majority of your sites anymore This makes me infinitely sad because I want to show your blogs some love but get frustrated and can’t most of the time. If you can go in an edit your comments section to include the Name/URL option I will be eternally grateful so that I can comment away

Counting Calories

As a rule, I don’t. Plain and simple.

Why, you may ask? I can’t. I am not patient enough to count calories and I have no doubt that I would be obsessed if I did. I also work out to feel good about myself not to lose weight. And it’s kind of funny that I’m even posting this because Heidi and I were just talking about NOT counting calories this weekend.

All that being said, I’m thinking about giving it a go – one work day, one weekend day… just to see.

Why, you may ask?

Marathon training BLOWS.

No, it really doesn’t, I actually thoroughly enjoy it and have found a lot of neat things I love in the process – like speedwork and tempo runs (I know, I know, a lot of people hate tempo runs, but I really really like them) and BODYPUMP (and if you’re wondering, I will almost always put BODYPUMP in all caps. It makes me feel hardcore which makes it worth me looking ridiculous).

However – and I’m sure anyone else training can attest to this – I am hungry all the time and ~~occassionally~~ a lot of the time my willpower cannot say no to fried pickles and beer. Which doesn’t bode well because it doesn’t matter if you ran 10, 12, 14, or more miles, they still aren’t good for you and they still make me feel awful the next day (fried food just doesn’t sit well with me which is super lame because I love it). Especially when those fried pickles make their debut at 12:30…. AM. :-/

I’m getting off topic though. I kind of am curious how many calories I’m eating versus burning and see if I’m being healthy or hurting myself (either by eating too much or too little… except let’s be honest, there’s NO WAY I’m eating too little…)

That’s where you guys come in… have any of you ever counted calories before? Tell me about it, I’m really curious.

The 8 Miles That Almost Wasn’t

Posted on September 12, 2011 by HHRunner

Sunday’s workout: 8 miles, 9:21 average pace

Today’s workout: Jackie Warner’s Power Circuit Training Arms & Abs circuits (shout out to MELISSA!) and a 2 mile walk.

When I woke up yesterday, I had a slight hangover. It’s weird how staying out until 2am will do that, even if you don’t drink “that much”. I put that in quotation marks because I only had 1 beer at the bar. But before that we were at a wedding shower (Holllllla James! now that I know that you read this…) where I had a few beers… As Sean says “I digress…” We were in Sugar Land, so after the shower we headed back in our direction and I conned Sarah (my old coworker) into hanging out with us for a bit. But, the hangover. I didn’t feel so hot when I woke up at 7 on Sunday morning. Try as I might, I just can’t sleep in, which is highly depressing.

However, I was determined to start my day right. So I started with this (that deliciousness is an open-faced egg white sandwich on a wheat flatbread with raspberry jelly and munster cheese. holy amazing):

And then a ~~little~~ lot of this:

I wanted to run 8 miles on Sunday. Buuuut at that point I figured grocery shopping would probably be a better idea. After all, I didn’t want to end up there in the middle of the afternoon when it was packed. I would do the 8 miles around 10:30am instead. So I loaded up and was off.

Except then my mom called because my hair stylist couldn’t find my phone number so he confirmed through my mom (we have the same hair stylist). Well that doesn’t work, I had completely forgotten about that. Did I mention I was in a really bad mood? I snapped at my mom for a few minutes before hanging up declaring I wasn’t going.

I went.

I cut all my hair off. (I probably should clarify – I cut it so that it sits on my shoulders… my mom said that wasn’t “all off” but to me it is. Oh and is now a bad time to mention I don’t have a picture… my bad.)

I ate a ton of granola, goldfish, walnuts, salt and vinegar chips and mini dark chocolate milky ways. Oh and I may have stole some of Sean’s soda. Yesterday was off to a slammin’ start.

Oops.

The next time I thought about doing 8 miles I declared it was too hot outside. 99 degrees and 69% humidity? No way.

So I cleaned the house instead.

About the time I was finishing up (5:45pm) I decided I really needed to get on that run. My stomach hurt and I figured I would feel better if I ran, right?

Right.

It wasn’t pretty. I felt horrible the first mile (which is how long it took me to run to Sean and I’s new park find) and continued to feel not great through mile 3.5. But as bad as I was feeling, the miles were ticking by pretty quickly, which is rare for me.

It doesn’t hurt when you’re running with this:

And this:

Before I knew it, I was at mile 7 and it was time to turn home.

I figured because I felt so crappy during my run that my splits weren’t going to be good. But instead, I managed pretty even negative splits the whole time.

That’s pretty good, for 8 miles that almost didn’t happen.

Do you ever have runs that you really don’t want to do, but once you start they end up going much smoother than expected??

My Favorites… For Now.

Posted on September 7, 2011 by HHRunner

I haven’t slept in two days. I think it might have to do with the change in weather. HOWEVER since I am obsessed with the weather right now, I will take no sleep over it going back to being ridiculously hot.

Unfortunately, since I am just the teensiest bit delirious from lack of sleep, I have remembered to take zero pictures of anything.

So you will get recycled pictures and Google images. You’re welcome.

Since I have no good pictures, my leg is feeling slightly off, and I’m tired (did I complain enough in one sentence?) I figured today would be a good time to go through some of things I’m lovin’ right now.

1. Sweet potatoes. I can’t get enough of them! Oh and Melissa, if you’re wondering why someone searched “playing with my food” on your blog today, well, it was me. I wanted your twice baked sweet potato recipe and I thought that was the name of the post. (And I was close, it was “flirting with my food“… touche).

2. That it actually feels like Fall in the morning. Since we went on a 40+ day streak of 100+ temps, waking up to 64 degree weather is ah-mazing. I do not like that we’re having so many fires though… it’s smelled like burning forests for the past few days when I walk out of work :-/ A little rain would definitely not hurt.

3. Running. After a few weeks of not wanting to run at all, I am 100% in love with it again.

4. This guy. I really like him. He makes me smile ridiculously when I think about him. Too much?

5. Our front yard. Seriously obsessed with the fact that it is FINALLY coming together.

What are you loving right now?? I am also loving BODYPUMP, Boston Legal, and the fact that I get off work at 4:30 every day.