Treat Yourself Tuesday

Today was "Treat Yourself Tuesday" (I totally made that up by the way, but I think it should be the next big social media campaign). In honor of this momentous occasion I decided to treat myself to whatever I wanted today. Well... as much as I wanted to treat myself to another day off, I still went to work because "Treat Yourself Tuesday" does not supercede "Pay the Rent Wednesday" or "Provide for Kai Every Day" ;)

I've been emotionally marinating in a stage of chronic sadness for the past several days weeks. Some days have been better than others, but most still suck. The simmering sadness has affected both my training and my blogging (which you probably already knew based on the inconsistency of both). The cause(s) of this chronic state are irrelevant to this post so I will spare you the details, but the point is I'm trying to cheer up, hence the newly proclaimed "Treat Yourself Tuesday" (TYT for short).

The first order of business for TYT was to head back to the gym. So at my former usual 3am hour I was immersed in a world of indoor hiking expeditions on the Stair climber. I did that for about 20 minutes and then I did several reps on the weight machines and air squats with dumbbells. Hopefully I will have the motivation to get back into the habit of regular cross training...

The First Half of Chicagoland {Michelob Ultra Chicago Race Recap}

One of the things I decided to treat myself to is a race in Chicago every year. This year I'm actually indulging in that treat three times. The first race on the list was the Michelob Ultra Chicago Half Marathon (part 1 of the Chicagoland Half Marathon Series). My hotel was pretty close to the race start so, much to Kai's distress, we walked to the start very early on race morning. When we got to the race location set-up activities were still in progress...

Kai was volunteering at the finish line with a friend from school so once they were settled I was able to get into "race mode" (aka strategically mentally prepare myself to run 13+ miles... without dying). Somehow I managed to do that with a smile ;)

How Did I Get Here?

I'm trying to figure out where everything went wrong. What changed (and when did it change) to cause me to dread running? There was a period when I would be so upset if weather or faulty alarm clocks forced me to miss my morning run. Now if I wake up and it even looks like it might rain I'm like "Oh Thank God!" and go right back to sleep.

On Tuesday morning I forced myself to get up (the weather app failed me) and was ready to go, dressed in the new running gear I got for my birthday, and immediately regretted it once I walked into the humid air outside. But I was already up so I figured I would go for a short run anyway. I started on my usual 1/2 mile warm-up walk... which led to a 1 mile warm-up walk... which led me right back to my front door so I went inside.

In an attempt to not feel like a complete bum I decided to workout on my air climber. But about 100 steps into that I gave up the pipe dream and watched the rest of The Mindy Show while using my air climber to prop up my phone.

Something is wrong.

Wrapping up the Birthday week...

Pictures from the last five days (mostly)...

Today marks the end of my birthday week and the beginning of my "time to get it together and actually start training properly" week. So to kick off the new week I ran 8 miles with Dafney along Ft Lauderdale Beach...

2016 Wings For Life World Run {Race Recap}

{pictures will be randomly sprinkled throughout the post & won't necessarily correspond with the surrounding text}

[Today the global running community gathered for the 3rd annual Wings for Life World Run. I joined thousands of runners from 34 locations in 33 different countries to run (and walk) for those who can't. A Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a significant life changing event that has affected (and will unfortunately continue to affect) many individuals. And while there is no cure currently, there have been several advances in medicine, surgery, and technology that allows for an improved quality of life for individuals with SCIs. These advances are made possible through events like Wings for Life where 100% of the proceeds are dedicated to SCI research.]

For Torryn and Ryan...

Tomorrow I will run in my 3rd Wings for Life World Run! I've enjoyed this event for the past two years (since its inception) and I'm pretty confident tomorrow will not disappoint. I'm going to try and stick with a "run a mile: walk a little" interval strategy, but really my primary goal is to run farther than I did last year (a 10K) and to have fun!

Today was packet pick-up. They had several dates and locations for packet pick-up this year, but I always prefer to go the day before and see what they have set up at the BBT Center. This year they provided a pre-race day warm up/boot camp session, so I took Kai with me and we joined in the fun...

What May May Bring...

My favorite month is finally here!!! May is my favorite month mainly because it's my birthday month... ok ONLY because it's my birthday month ;)

I'm normally super excited about my birthday because it's the most important day of the year. But this year is going to be different cause I won't get to see my twin sister... and I won't be traveling... and I have a feeling it's going to feel like a regular Friday, instead of a SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS Friday.

Anyway apart from my birthday, there are lots of other things happening this month:
1. Training will get more intense because May officially starts my Fall marathon training season (I start early to give myself extra time to get through the dreaded 20+ mile training runs)...

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