5 Mile Redemption Run

Michael moved to Augusta last Thursday and I went Friday night to spend the weekend getting him unpacked and ready for school. Saturday morning I had a 5 mile long run on the calendar. Before leaving I mapped out a route in the new neighborhood and made sure it was hilly, I know that the half marathon is going to be hilly and avoiding hills at this point won’t do me any favors. Friday night I drowned a bad day in too much wine, but tried to balance it with water knowing I had a morning run.
Saturday morning I woke up at 4:00 am freaking out about my run “I don’t have my hat, I could only find one bobby pin, it is supposed to rain, should I run in the rain? Will all that wine leave me too dehydrated? What if the route is too hilly…” and on and on to the point that I almost got up and went running then just so I could stop agonizing over it. I went back to sleep, woke up, put my gear on and was out the door at 6:56, I get up earlier to run on Saturdays then I do Monday-Friday for work.
In spite of all of the time I spent worrying about it, this was a great redemption run for me. The week before my Saturday 5 miles beat me down, this week I rocked it. The rain was spitting on me the whole way, so it was cool but humid as hell, it was hilly as crap, and I got lost on my new route. But, it didn't matter. I was a positive self-talk machine, or Bright Side Bitch as Val calls it. I alternated between ignoring the rain and reminding myself that is was cooling me off. I’d never run in rain before, I’d also never gone on a training run while out of town so staying committed to my training plan was a first. I didn't let not having all the gear I wanted, yucky weather, too much wine, or being in a new place stop me. It may seem small, or like a no brainer but Old Lauren would have used all, or even one of those facts as an excuse to blow off my run. Way to go new Lauren!
I got home stretched and wasn't even sore the next day. After this run and the previous 5 miler and felt pretty crappy the rest of the day-not my legs but more dizzy, nauseous stomach ache. I think it might be dehydration, something I will continue to figure out and work on.

Have you ever used positive self talk to motivate or push yourself? This is a new concept for me….

Saturday "Long" Run

I put long in quotation marks because by most standards five miles is not a long run. I am well aware of that fact, but when it is the longest run I do all week it only feels appropriate to label it as such. I’ve been doing my long runs with the Wow! Bootcamp  AthHalf run group. I like the Wow! group run for a lot of reasons: It is motivating to run with a group, they plan out the distance and mark the route for us, parts of the half marathon are covered on the runs so I know what to expect in those areas, they have water stops for us, and it helps keep me accountable. They plan it all; I just have to show up. This week it was a 5 mile run. I knew from looking at the route that was sent out that it was going to be hilly and tough.

I woke up to tummy troubles and hoped it wasn’t a sign of what was to come that morning. The last long run I’d done (4 miles) I didn’t eat before and my stomach growled the last 2 miles. I’d picked up some new bars at the store and decided to try them as breakfast. I have no appetite in the morning; in fact eating makes me nauseas so I tried to be careful. I ate half of a coconut almond Kind bar in the car on the way to the Y. It was so delicious; it tasted like one of those off brand chewy honey oat bars my mom used to buy. It tasted good, but did not make my stomach feel good. When I got to the Y I tried to go in and use the bathroom in the lobby but the building wasn’t open yet. Fail. I was just going to have to deal.

We did some warm up drills, Zoe showed up, and we were off. At the start I told Zoe that I was tight and sore from pushing it the last half mile of my run yesterday (idiot, I knew I had to run again 12 hours later) and that my stomach was bothering me. I told myself that it would all shake out by the time the first mile marker rolled around. I usually feel better after a mile (although I used to hate people who said that) and I was right, kind of. My muscles were looser and my stomach was fine, and then we hit a hill (and another and another ad nauseam for 4 miles). I knew it was coming and thought it was going to kill me. Surprisingly, it didn’t and Zoe and I high fived at the top #nerdalert.

I would like to stop here and explain that I am a slow runner. I know that and I am okay with it. I mean, sure I would like to crank out 8 minute miles like its nothing but I can’t, at least not right now. Maybe someday….So in order to not burnout my slow, steady pace is about 11:00 minute miles (I know, you can walk that fast, blah, blah, Runner Lauren don’t care). After Zoe and I conquered the hill my running app told me that we’d just run a 9:45 mile. We were all “hooray!” and “oops, crap!” at the same time.

Let’s just say shit hit the fan. I felt like I was made of bricks, my right knee was hurting, my left IT band was screaming, I was getting blisters for no apparent reason. We got to the water stop at the 3 mile mark I commented that this was easily the worst run I’d had in 2 months, someone told us that it was 100% humidity. So, that explained some of it, but really it was the perfect storm. I wasn’t logging my weekly miles the way I needed to be to in order to do longer weekend mileage, I didn’t stretch after my run on Friday and pushed too hard, I didn’t sleep well the night before and it was insanely hot and humid for 7:30am.

I often have to remind myself when I don’t want to run on a Wednesday that I will pay for it later. Bottom line: long runs suck a lot less when you get your week day mileage in. And I also have to keep in mind that you have to have bad runs to appreciate the good ones.

When all was said and done the route ended up being 5.42 miles and it hurt and humbled me. I went home and told Michael “that run tried to kill me.” Which it did, but it also motivated me to do better this week; running is a bitch like that.

I now present to you My Running Blog

I often flip flop around about what kind of blog I want this to be. I feel like a faker writing about running because I am not a hardcore runner, but I have been running more and I have thoughts about it and this is my blog, so I'm the boss and I say I write about running.
Last week I wrote about running after work, and I did it. It was the first run i'd been on in 11 days and it went okay. I had to take 2 walking breaks. The first was because the girl I was meeting for dinner called to cancel and I needed to talk to her. The second time was because I was going up a hill and was out of shape. But all in all it was okay. I was proud of myself for going after work, and in the heat. The only major bummer was that my running app did not save the run. This is not really a big deal but I like to be able to look back on my weekly mileage total/pace.
Thursday I lifted weights and called it a day. Friday I had another run to get in. I knew we had plans that evening so I wanted to get my run in before work (ha).  I turned my alarm off for my morning run like I ALWAYS do. Never once have I got up for my morning run. never. Friday was no different. So, I had to go after work and at 3:00pm on Friday it was 90* and felt like 97* so I ended up on the treadmill. I actually had a surprisingly good run. I was able to zone out and just crank out 3 miles. The last .5 I even turned the pace up fairly high and really pushed myself because I was feeling strong and had a lot left in the tank.
Friday night we had Jody and Zoe over for dinner. We had burgers (I had black bean), sweet potato rounds, corn on the cob, and frozen balsamic veggies from Trader Joe's (which were awesome and I bought them again this week). We chatted and listened to country music while I cooked. The night was to celebrate Michael passing all of his nursing school tests and classes so I manned dinner and just wanted him to relax.
Our grill has been on its last legs for a while now, it was a hand me down and has treated us well but it is old and has been well used. One of the burners shoots fire straight out the back of the grill, and last night another one could not be turned to high or low-just one flame level, and the grates are crumbling etc etc we really should just let it rest in peace, but we are stubborn. When I took the burgers off of the grill they were rare so we put them back on. After several more minutes 2 of them were still rare and the other 3 look better. Jody took one for the team and ate the 2 rare burgers. ew.
Later we went out to the cul-de-sac and set off some small fireworks that were leftover from the rainy 4th of July. Yay! Roman Candles! Our neighbors love us...
Then it was early to bed to get up for my "long" run Saturday morning.

Disgusta

This was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a while. I didn’t spend 90% of it in a quiet room watching Netflix with my headphones in not interacting with anyone, so it was an automatic win (I use Michael’s studying as a crutch to not have much of a social life of my own).

Friday I helped Val clean her rental house for new tenants moving in. It was sweaty work and to reward ourselves we went to dinner at Cali N Tito’s, it was awesome to sit outside on a summer night and have a drink and hang out with my best friend. From there we ventured downtown. I haven’t been downtown after 10:00pm in 100 years and I was wearing sweaty gross clothes and generally feeling very out of place. We had a super fun time and didn’t make it home until almost 3:00am, but I did manage to put off an awkward, I don’t know how to talk to people, we are both married and not 19 anymore vibe.               

7:15 came early and I was grateful that the hangover gods were kind to me. I worked until 12:30 and met Michael and his family for lunch at Big City Bread and he brought Stella! I love when she can go everywhere with us. A delicious fried egg sammy was inhaled and I got to catch up with my in laws. From there we boogied West to Augusta to check out the apartment that Michael is going to be living in. The apartment is beautiful and I am going to be spending a lot of time at the pool.

On Sunday we hit the town to explore and see the campus. Every time I have mentioned that Michael is moving to Augusta for nursing school I get a lot of “oh, DISgusta” but I’d checked it out online and knew they had a downtown area, and it was on the water, a lot of medical students, the Masters etc. etc. and I was hoping to get there and drive around and think “see, it’s not that bad!” But that was not the case. It was disgusting. Run down and dirty and not well maintained. It looked unloved and abandoned and I am thoroughly confused as to why. We will do some more exploring and make the best of it when I visit, but the reality is that we have been spoiled by Athens. Oh, good ole Athens. 

Weekend Goals

Last night we me Ms. Frances at Hendershots for the final night at their current location before moving. Yay for being spontaneous and going out on a weeknight!

This weekend we will be staying in town. I am so excited. It is only the second weekend we’ve had in town in 8 weeks.  I have already mentally filled all of our time with chores, errands, and summer activities but all I really want is to relax. Whyyyyy do I always try to cram so much in….I am telling myself that as long as I go berry picking, buy tomatoes, and go to the swimming hole nothing else really matters.

Then 2 days of work next week, and looooooong Third of July weekend. Yahoo!

I am super proud of my runs this week. I am training for a Fall half marathon and following a mix of 2 training plans. One plan recommended being able to run 3 miles comfortably 3 times a week prior to starting the plan. So I set that goal for myself. I am happy to say that so far this week I have run 3 miles twice at a slow but comfortable pace-especially considering I am running in heat and humidity. I am too stubborn (read: lazy) to get out of bed and run before work so I have been running at 5:00pm, not the coolest part of the day. It is worth mentioning that I am actually looking forward to my runs (I KNOW! I am as shocked as you are). This morning I mixed up my training time and went to the gym 2 hours before I was supposed to meet with Jody so he was with another client (duh) luckily, Michael was able to train me.

 Shocking fact #1 before I knew Michael was going to be able to train me I had the thought “no big deal, I will just jump on the treadmill, Yay!”

 Shocking fact #2 I enjoyed training with Michael and was not cranky or wanting to kill him. Ahhh love.

I plan to get my third run in this weekend. So I guess my weekend goals are:

Buy fresh juicy yummy summer tomatoes

Berry picking/See Carrie and Patrick

Waterfall/See Frances and Zach

Run

Relax and love on Michael

See how I refrained from writing clean house, return things, go to wal mart, grocery shop, food prep blah blah blah. I am prioritizing my summer fun and relaxation. And using that as an excuse to slack in areas of my life that clearly aren’t as fun or rewarding :)

Cheers to the weekend!

First days of Summer

Over the weekend we took a trip to one of our favorite weekend getaway spots-camping at Lake Allatoona! You may remember that I got poison ivy there last year....
This weekend, we had friends tag along with us! Jody, Zoe, Allison and John made the trip to the boat. We had a blast on Saturday-swimming, tubing, playing with the dogs, floating and hitting the whiffle ball. It was also the summer solstice and a super moon! Summer is my jam, and you better believe I was pumped!! Everything was so wonderfully summer. Although packing up all of the food and gear and taking care of the boat after a weekend on it is a all a lot of work it makes me so happy. There is nothing better than sleeping under the stars on a summer night, hearing the bullfrogs and crickets, and waking up to a freckled nose from time in the sun. I enjoyed a glorious two and a half hour nap on Sunday and needed a LOT of coffee this morning to face the reality of Monday.
Another bonus to the weekend is that Allison and John introduced me to my new favorite band. Band? DJ might be a better word...damn I'm old... Anywho, its called The White Panda. It's all mashups and very similar to GirlTalk whom I LOVE. Mashups are the best running music-great beats and it switches so often you dont get bored.
I hammered out an awesome 3 mile run today after work to the sweet melodies of White Panda. Then I came home and whipped up a batch of chicken (and chicken less) enchiladas.
Even though I woke up dragging and mourning the loss of the weekend I still managed to show Monday what was up.
Bring it, Tuesday.

Memorial Day Weekend

Ahhhhh. What a lovely long weekend. Friday night and Saturday we spent time at Michael’s parent’s house in Kennesaw. On Saturday we hit up the 20% off sale at REI and I ended up spending $150! Yikes. But, I got 4 tech tees and a wicking skirt. I really needed the shirts, I am so sick of working out in cotton shirts and just being wet the whole time.
Saturday night I went over to my dads for beer, pizza and baseball. It was nice to see him. We ordered one of the new Artisan Pizzas from Dominos, one of the ones that you can’t change or add to, and it was eh. It wasn’t really a pizza, but more of a flatbread with toppings.

Sunday I went out to Last Resort for a brunch date with our house guest, Hisanthi. I had the special frittata with tomatoes, basil, Italian seasonings and ricotta and a salad. It was awesome! (Apparently this is a food blog now)

Sunday night I went out to Watkinsville for dinner and puppy play date at Carrie and Patrick’s. They celebrated Memorial Day by buying a huge, awesome, new grill that we tried out while the pups played.

At first Munson wasn’t so sure about Stella’s size, but I think they are going to be good buds.

Yesterday I grilled out again, made potato salad and on a whim dipped strawberries in chocolate.

Needless to say, this was a food filled weekend. I ate and drank more than my fair share. It is time to get back on track so, I decided to join the Run Streak Runners World challenge. You commit to running no less than one mile a day, every day beginning Memorial Day and ending July 4th. I started yesterday with a little over a mile with the dog. I stupidly went at 12:30 in the afternoon and it was blazing hot.

Today I am back to the grind, gearing up for my first week of summer camp on Monday.

What did you do this holiday weekend? Did you eat too much like me?

More than you wanted to know

We went camping and it was a wonderful weekend! I always moan and complain about going but once we get there I always love the trip. We stayed at Victoria Campground at Lake Allatoona, which is right across the street from where the Butzens store their boat. Score! Our campsite ended up being RIGHT next to a campsite with about 25 nine year old boy scouts. They were up talking about farts and Star Wars until after midnight and at it again at 6:00am Saturday morning. Way to mind your manners boy scouts- not!
Saturday we were on the boat allllll day and it was lovely, the weather was perfect. We parked at a little beach and hung out for a while and Stella loved running up and down, chomping at the waves and swimming in the lake to fetch a ball. It was a wonderful camping weekend, complete with a smore for breakfast on Sunday!
It WAS wonderful until on Sunday when I start to feel itchy… down there…. I thought maybe it was from hanging around in a wet bathing suit. Until I saw the rash on my thighs. And realized I. had. Poison. Ivy. It is on my inner thighs, on/in/around my lady parts and on/in/around my bottom. So itchy. SO uncomfortable. So awful. I went to the doctor this afternoon and got a shot of steroids and hopefully I will feel better in the morning. And next time, I will be sure to more careful, MUCH more careful.

Wanna know what?

It's Friday. I usually love Fridays, it is my favorite day of the week. A sweet combination of work and play. And, I always feel like there is a buzz in the air around the office, filled with the anticipation of the weekend. However, today, I am not feeling it. I hate to admit it but I am not feeling well and I’m actually not looking forward to the weekend.
I started felling yucky after work yesterday. Sore throat, headache, small appetite, tickly cough. But, I knew I was really in trouble when I went upstairs to bed at 9:30- a full hour earlier than normal. Thankfully I slept like a rock, much harder than normal, but still woke up feeling the yuck. I just popped a cough drop, uh-oh.
We are going camping this weekend, which is something I enjoy but always drag my feet when it comes to planning a trip. You should also know that I am a fair weather camper, so the fact that it is predicted to be 87 degrees tomorrow doesn’t thrill me. I feel like this weekend trip is just going to end up being a lot of work and not a lot of relaxation. We get off of work at 3:00 this afternoon and Michael wants to be on the road to Atlanta at 4:00. Keep in mind that we have not pulled any of the gear out of the attic, packed our stuff, the dog’s stuff or anything to eat. Yeah.

So, as much as I know I will enjoy making memories on a weekend trip with Michael and Stella, and as much as I will enjoy taking the boat out once we get there I am dreading getting to that point. Am I being selfish and lazy? Or is this really just not the best weekend for the trip? Either way, sounds like I am going to have to put on my big girl panties and enjoy the adventure.

How do you compromise with your significant other when he is excited about something and you really aren’t?