Running, Recipes, and Real life adventures!
Happy Friday, everyone!! I hope you all had a fantastic day!!! I’m so happy it’s the weekend, I don’t know about you!! Tonight’s workout was 3 sets of 30 reps-biceps and shoulders. 4 set of 30-crunches and my daily plank, ANDDDD my first mini long run. No, 4 miles isn’t considered long, but it is for me where I’m at in my pre-training phase so I’m pretty pleased.
Any big plans for the weekend? We’re keeping a close eye on hurricane Elsa…🌀😬🏃🏻♀️
Cheers!
Michelle
My husband I decided shortly after running the Disney wine and dine half marathon that we wanted to run another half. We hadn’t properly trained for that half due to good old general life, so we thought, “Let’s do it right this time.” We signed up for the Gasparilla half marathon and started training shortly there after. I had a good 6 or 7 weeks of training until NYE came, and I came down with a 5 week case of bronchitis. I only made it to a 9 mile long run, and I was nervous going in to this race.
We went out to eat with some of our neighborhood runners last night, and after several hiccups in the evening, we didn’t get home until 10 PM. Not ideal when we still had to finish laying our stuff out for the race, AND we had a 3:30 wake up call this morning.
But, we got our outfits laid out, and the morning went off without a hitch. I took my Novorenew (get yours by using discount code of Michelle25 at check out; click link) which I’ve found to help my knee and joint pain tremendously since I’ve started taking it!!! I highly recommend it. We arrived at the convention center within 45 minutes, and had plenty of time to park, apply sunscreen, and do last minute adjustments before meeting up with our neighbors who were also running the race.
Our sub-2 neighbors took off for their corral, and we went to ours to line up to start. I had already given my blessing to my husband to run his own race, so shortly after the start gun went off an we made it about a quarter of a mile in, and he smiled and waved and I was running my own race.
I’ve gone back and forth with solo running, sometimes loving it, and sometimes hating it because I get stuck inside my own head when I am alone, and every now and then I can’t get unstuck. Today, thankfully, wasn’t that day. While I am not the runner I once was, and running in Florida heat is rough, I know eventually I’ll get my speed back.
The race was well organized, had some great spots for spectators, and I even got the high five Meb at around the 8 mile mark, as well as getting a photo with him at the end. Official finish time was 2:31 which is far from my best, but definitely not my worst.
Here’s some photos from the day!!
How was your weekend? Do you have any joint or knee problems? Please click the link above if you do! This stuff is life changing. What’s your favorite distance to run?
Cheers and keep movin’ forward!!
Michelle.
Cheers,
Michelle
Wednesday I went out for my short run after work, and felt incredibly strong. I always wonder how I can pull these runs after working all day, but I got it done and it felt great. Fast forward to today’s long run, and whoa…but we’ll get to that in just a bit. I haven’t gotten a chance to write since my last post about mid-life due to crazy schedules, but just thought I’d share a little about my week last week.
Like I said, my mid week 5k went great. I settled in after the first mile and was able to let go and just run. While I often miss my once speedy average pace of 9:15 for short runs, I will celebrate my time no matter what. I didn’t get to run much for the year of 2016 while my husband was deployed, and 2017 was busy playing catch up for the year I lost with my husband, and moving my family across the country to start our Florida adventures.
For dinner tonight I made Beef bourguignon over cauliflower mash and it was amazing. To keep it keto friendly I omitted the carrots, but I feel like it was missing something with leaving them out.
Please click the links for the recipes!
How was your week/weekend? Are you training for any specific races? How do you handle running in extreme temperatures?
Cheers, and have a great week!!
Michelle
Despite not sleeping well last night, I knew I needed to get my long run done for the 9th week of training as I didn’t get it done over the weekend due to being stuck inside on a very rainy Sunday.
Once I got home from work I immediately changed clothes and headed out for my neighborhood loop/running trails. My plan called for a 10k race pace but I had planned to go a little farther to make up the 3 weeks of training I missed due to bronchitis. (That nasty cough is still lingering but getting a little better every day). The first mile felt surprisingly well, and I couldn’t believe I actually had a 10 mm in the mix, as well as I kept under an 11 mm pace for the entire 6.5 miles. Over all I was thrilled with this run.
Today’s thankful 5:
How is your commute to work? What’s your favorite thing to have for leftovers? Get any mileage in today?
Cheers!
Michelle
Ok guys, I am not going to lie. I am going to have to dig deep to not be a little repetitive in my thankful post today, because I am having a bit of a struggle compiling my list. Sunshine and my dog are a given. Today was a rough day at work, and I’ll simple put between instrumentation and staffing issues this year, I snapped. I snapped at doctors, snapped at coworkers, hell I even snapped at myself for snapping and quickly apologized to the victims of my snaps, LOL.
My thankful post for today:
What are you thankful for today? Do you have a favorite day of the week?
Cheers!
Michelle
I have been down for the count for exactly 3 weeks. My last long run was Christmas where I was able to run 5 miles fairly easily as I’ve been running 3-4 miles for quite some time. I’ve only walked/ran a couple of times since then, so decided I either 1. get off my butt and run (even if that meant some walking due to coughing still), or 2. ditch the notion of running the Gasparilla half marathon on February 24th in St. Petersburg FL. My hubby is also running this race, but is three weeks ahead of me in training and I know he didn’t want to slow down to run my slower pace so I sent him off for his long run so I could run solo.
The temps were in the perfect low 60’s and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There were however, left over winds from the crazy storms we got last night which took my breath away several times. I ran the first loop (3.2 miles) slowly but I felt quite strong. I started to feel a little light headed, so I ran past my house to fuel and take a potty break. I had a HUMA chia gel which are my go-to for long run fueling, some water, and I headed back out. I did ok until I hit mile 5 and this was my “wall” to today’s long run. I slowed to a pace of 11:54 and mile 6 was an 11:53. Thankfully I caught a second wind and my last mile was 11:14 with an average pace of 11:18. I am learning that it’s not always about pace, and that I need to celebrate the distance.
Today I am thankful for:
Did you work today? What’s your favorite way to release stress? Are you training for any races right now?
Cheers,
Michelle
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