I Spoke Too Soon...

I'm currently nursing a minor ankle sprain so training has taken a nosedive. For the past week I've only been able to manage my one mile runs to keep up the running streak...

So I'm spending my days icing my ankle and trying to figure out how to modify my training so that I can still prepare for my Fall marathons. 

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of wiggle room in my training plan because I've had to make a few changes to accommodate family related travel. So I may be forced to break up my runs and/or cross train more so that I don't suffer too much of a long term negative impact from the reduction in miles.

The goal is (and will always be) getting through both marathons safely. So sadly that may mean the end of my running streak so that I can avoid the high impact stuff and focus on strength training and endurance training through other activities.

I'm a little bummed when I think about the possibility of having to stop the streak (as you can imagine) but I'm trying to think of the big picture. It's been more than half the year and therefore my longest running streak ever. But at the end of the day, the marathons are more important, and I can always try and do the streak again some other time.

I'll keep everyone posted. In the meantime please send happy healing thoughts for my ankle to feel better soon 😊.

How is your training going?

How long is/was your longest running streak?

What's your favorite cross training activity when you can't run?

Four Miles Later...

My run this morning went well. Before I started I decided to aim for an 11:30 min/mile average pace and to try and maintain a conservative effort. The desire for the conservative effort was because I felt a "twinge" in my left knee yesterday and I didn't want to push too hard considering I also have a longish run on Sunday. And I decided to do intervals (run 3 minutes: walk 30 seconds) for the entire 4 miles because I figured that would help with the conservative effort (plus it gives my legs a well needed break).

I'm happy to report that my effort did feel conservative AND I pulled off a sub-11 minute pace!

I never thought I would see the day that a sub-11 min/mile pace would feel conservative... especially for a distance longer than a mile 😊...

It would have been great to have gotten negative splits but that pesky mile four messed it up for me 😒...

The only not so great thing about the run was that I got a really bad blister on the bottom of my right big toe...

(just imagine this is me with black curly hair, darker skin, and pain to the other big toe 😉)

The blister is not going to be fun when I run tomorrow but I'm hoping I can still get my 6 miles in. It's Easter Sunday so I need to schedule my run before church, with enough time to get home and get ready to go to church. 

Later on I will be off to Kai's painting party for part 2 of her birthday celebration. She chose a nice sunset landscape scene to paint...

It will be fun to see what the "after" paintings look like once everyone is done. One of my favorite things about the painting party concept is that we all get to keep our paintings as a nice keepsake from Kai's 16th birthday celebration. It's kind of like a really great grown up version of a birthday party "goodie bag" 😉. 

Have you ever been to a painting party?

Do you get blisters when you run?

What's your current "conservative" pace?

A Long Day of Travel...

(please forgive typos and other weirdness excessive weirdness cause I'm posting from my phone)

It's been a looooong day. Our flight out of FLL was delayed (really delayed) which meant we landed in ATL just as our connecting flight was pushing back from the gate. So literally, as we were taxiing to our gate, we started searching for alternatives. Delta had rebooked us on a flight leaving ATL after 8pm (we landed shortly after 2pm) but the thought of having a 6+ hour layover was daunting. So we decided to rebook on a flight leaving around 3pm with a stop in LGA (for about 2.5 hours) and then on to STL for an 8:30pm arrival time. Not ideal but certainly better than hanging out at ATL for 6 hours (even if they have the coolest ceiling art)...

While we waited for the flight out of ATL to start boarding (it was also delayed... surprise surprise) we got a quick bite to eat and I went snack shopping...

The ATL to LGA flight was going well until we hit a really bad patch of turbulence that sent my motion sickness into overdrive. And then once we landed (safely thankfully) we found out that our connecting flight was delayed by three hours...

So once again we were faced with a change to our travel plans. Sigh.

With over three hours to kill we decided to get something to eat...

The delay changed all of the plans for the day, but I'm so glad I ran in the morning before all my travel started!

I hope you're having a less eventful day than I am!

What's your favorite airline to travel on? (mine is NOT Delta 😐)

What's the maximum number of layovers you can put up with during a day of travel? (I usually max out at 2)

What airport has the best food/restaurants?

The End Of The Streak...

I ended my blogging streak on Friday. It was intentional so I'm only partially sad when I think about it. Friday was my 500th blog post and Day 90 of my blogging (and running) streak. It seemed like a good ending point... blogging every day isn't easy. I know a lot of bloggers that have new posts with fresh content everyday. But most of them work from home, or don't work, or work part time, or have more than 24 hours in their day. I made it a point to set aside time for each blog post but some days I just didn't have much to say. And rather than continue with quantity over quality I decided to just focus on my running streak, getting enough rest, and increasing the cross training aspects of my current training plan...

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There were other changes this weekend... I went home (to Jamaica). It's a very long story but I needed to be home and made the decision to travel on Thursday and came down on the first flight on Friday. Which meant I missed the triathlon relay that I was supposed to do today (the team found a replacement though and they did really well). 

While I was home on a #FamilyFirst mission, I was able to continue my running streak. I've done a mile each day that I've been here (some a lot slower than others). Friday's run...

Saturday's run...

Today's run...

Saturday's run was after spending most of the morning at the beach so I definitely felt extra tired on that run. And even though today's run was mid-morning on a very sunny day, I was able to push myself to a sub-10 min pace. I'm always excited when I can do that 😊.

In between runs and family time I've tried to catch up on sleep. Last week was a busy work week and this upcoming week will be as well, so things are going to be non-stop for a while. I've also been applying to some online teaching jobs and the next sessions should be starting some time this month or next month (please keep your fingers crossed that I get one of them) so my days will be even more hectic. These upcoming changes also contributed to my decision to end the blogging streak.

Instead of blogging every day, I'm going to try and blog at least 3-4 times a week. Some weeks will be more, but hopefully no future weeks will have less than three blog posts. Especially since training will start to get a bit more structured so I'll have much more to post about from now on 😉. 

(If you blog) How often do you blog each week?

What's the longest blogging streak you've done? 

How was your running/training this weekend?

Early Morning Easy Miles...

I did it guys! I woke up this morning and got OUT of bed without snoozing my alarm and got 3+ miles done! It was a pretty early morning (I woke up at 3:20am and I was out of the house by 4am for a 4:20am run start time). I ran with Andy from my running group (no one else decided to join us this morning) and we did the usual out and back route...

Normally the group runs are all done with intervals, but this morning we decided to just run until a walk break was needed and then pick up the pace once the break was over...

I was glad I got my run completed in the morning because I did not want to run once I got home from work. Today was a very long day, partially because it started at 3:20am, and also because it was busy at work. So knowing that I could spend the evening relaxing was pretty nice.

My triathlon swimwear came!!! I really want to test it out tomorrow morning, but I also want to run tomorrow morning. My plan is to do a 1/2 mile swim and then come home (change quickly) and do a one (or more) mile run. If I'm going to be able to accomplish all of that in the morning I definitely need to get a good night's sleep tonight. Two nights of not enough sleep will not be good. Plus since I started coughing again I know I need to focus on getting more rest. Otherwise I could potentially relapse and I definitely don't want that!

How was your Wednesday?

Did you do a solo or group run today?

Do you like to do back-to-back workouts (like my swim then run plan for tomorrow)?

Kicking Off A Crazy Week...

This week is going to be really busy at work. I'm trying to get all my workouts done in the morning so that my evenings are less hectic. And as we get closer to the end of the week I will be at my 500th blog post and I'll hit my 90 day blogging streak mark. I have a few things in mind to honor both of those occasions... and I have a few changes I'm thinking about making as well. But until then I'm just taking this week one day at a time.

Today started with a two mile run...

and then I bonded with coffee at work...

It felt like I was slaving away at my desk for most of the day but, thanks to my morning run, Garmin Connect was really proud of my movements...

Tomorrow will be another high activity day (Garmin will be so excited) because I'm teaching and whenever I teach I tend to walk between my office and the course location a lot 😊. 

Over the past few days I've been thinking about what my next steps will need to be as I prepare for the rest of this year and the next two years. Not just running-wise but life in general. I usually have a 3 (and 5... & 10) year plan, so I'm usually planning and preparing for stuff way in advance. That's why I register for races a year in advance. And why I tentatively "schedule" marathons two to three years in advance. I like to set my goals long before I'm at the point where I can achieve them and then work hard to get to those goals (and maybe even pass them). After all, even when achieving a goal seems unlikely to impossible, it's still a chance worth taking...

How was your Monday?

What are your "unlikely to impossible" goals?

What's your most active day of the week?

Snack Attack...

I'm a snacker. I could snack on food all day plus have my three meals a day (including my morning coffee). Cause let's be honest... food = joy 😊. I used to be on the "diet all day" plan. Meaning, I was always trying something to loose weight. Always. And granted, I've been in the 5 to 10 lbs over my "ideal body weight" range for a while now, the reality is that I stay in that range because food tastes yummy. I'm also an emotional eater (with LOTS of feelings), and since Jesus allowed for the creation of cashew milk ice cream, it would be a sin to not show appreciate for this creation on a regular basis...

Today I had to live without the ice cream from heaven so I snacked on other things...

(These chips keep me happy while I stay away from flour for the rest of Lent)

(When I need my chocolate fix)

Numbers (v. 3.22)...

Today marks Day 81 of my running and blogging streak...

The hardest part of doing a streak is trying to cram 30 hours of stuff to do into a 24 hour day. The more "mandatory" things on my daily agenda the more I haven't had as much time for the "non-mandatory but equally important" fun things like, catching up on my shows on Hulu and jigsaw puzzles and sleep. Ok, sleep is mandatory but I really haven't been getting enough (despite moving my morning runs to the evening). 

Today's evening run was at a 10:08 min/mile pace; which is closer to my goal so I felt pretty happy with it...

With today's run I added 1 more mile to my 2017 running mileage for a current total of: 193.5 miles. 

Another Mile, Another Minute...

So apparently my sub-10 min/mile pace stayed on vacation in Jamaica. The two runs I've done since I've been back (yesterday and today) have been progressively slower. Monday's mile...

Today's two miles...

(I decided to add another mile to this run since I added another minute to my pace)

There never seems to be a real rhyme or reason to why some of my runs are slower and some are "fast" (for me). Although, the common theme among the runs this week is that I'm tired and really not getting a good night's sleep. I'm also a little stressed out about non-running related things so I'm sure that doesn't help (as much as running is supposed to be an escape from life's stress, sometimes the stress doesn't help your running). 

Back To Reality...

The first day back at work after vacation is always hard and relatively busy. I spent the early morning responding to emails & addressing a few pending items from last week. I spent the late morning to early afternoon in meetings. And I spent the rest of the day working on stuff for two major meetings tomorrow. Needless to say I was busy but my heart still wanted to be on vacation...

Now that I'm home my day is only half finished. Once I'm done with this post, I need to start the work I brought home with me. And then once the sun sets and it gets a little cooler outside, I need to do my daily run to keep my running streak alive. Both the blogging streak and the running streak take time away form other things (like resting) but that doesn't make me enjoy them any less. Even on vacation I set aside time to complete my blog posts...

And of course I ran every day while I was there. Not only did I run, but I had sub-10 runs every time!

Weekend Getaway Day 3

The sun came out today! Just in time for the last day of our weekend getaway...

We did another quick one mile run...

And did our usual walk on the sand...

The sun coming out was a nice way to end the weekend. We didn't get much tanning or swimming time, but the barbecue yesterday was really fun and I got to spend time with family and friends and my favorite god-nephew...

But now it's time to head back to reality and home. It's going to be a long travel day starting with the road trip back...

(It was a beautiful day for a road trip... even though it was taking me back to my flight home)

How was your weekend?

What's your favorite beach day activity?

Do your prefer to fly or drive to a vacation destination?

Weekend Getaway Day 1...

Let the vacation begin!!!! I was up well before the crack of dawn (around 2:30am) getting ready for my flight, and left just as the sun was rising...

By the time I saw home the morning was just getting started...

Most of the morning was spent visiting family so our road trip didn't really start until the early afternoon; and thanks to the highway I didn't get car sick...

It was rainy and overcast all of the way...

Once we arrived we decided to stop for food to get "some of the best jerk chicken"...

Vacation Eve & Streaking

In less than 24 hours I'll be watching the sunset on the beach...

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I can't wait! I'm already in vacation-mode. I finished packing. I've made all the plans & arrangements. Now all I have left to do is sleep for a few hours before my flight. But before that I had to run...

Today marks Day #75 of my running streak! It's definitely the longest running streak I've ever done (almost twice as long as my last one) and I'm happy that I've been able to make it a part of my daily routine...

Let It Be Enough...

Today my "enough" was my one mile run. It happened in the middle of the day... in near perfect weather... on a route that was familiar... while I listened to a podcast that was new. Maybe it was the unique combination of all those factors that made this run so great. It was only a mile... one mile. But because of that one mile I accomplished something that I wished for only two days ago... to beat a time that I hadn't seen in almost two years...

When I set out for the run I didn't have a PR goal in mind. I was home early from work because the repair people were finally coming to check out my fridge (it's fixed now by-the-way😁), and I decided to get my run out of the way while I was waiting. It was a really sunny day but the temperature was pretty nice...

Stay In The Mile...

I was so grateful to be able to run today. As excited as I am about what's in store this week, today was mentally draining. So I started my run with a "stay in the mile and enjoy the moment" mindset and I finished it thinking "run until you see sub-10"...

I'm still a bit away from my one mile PR, but hopefully I can get back there before May 20th this year...

Obligatory post-run selfie 😉...

I'm purposely keeping my mileage low/slow this week because I don't want a relapse of coughing spasms before I go on my mini-vacation this weekend. I'm going on a long awaited romantic getaway where the weekend doesn't revolve around a race or a work trip. Instead we get to spend time together in person rather than our usual M.O...

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(😍 so excited!!! 😍)

Today I spent some time thinking about my running journey over the past year. I tend to do that a lot, especially when I'm thinking about the progress (or lack of) I've made. Last year this time I had just finished my first half marathon relay with my friend Niqui...

{Race Recap}

We did a road trip up to Sarasota with our kids and we had a great time running that event because it really is a beautiful race course. Niqui's portion of the race had the bridge (which she had to run twice) so I think I enjoyed my section more 😉. I'm kind of disappointed that I'm not doing Sarasota again this year, but I have enough race related travel for 2017. It's definitely a race worth running again though (maybe next year).

Since tomorrow is "Pi day" (which, by the way, I didn't know was a thing until today) my running group is doing 3.14 miles for our mid-week training run. I tried to convince them to start at 3:14am but nobody else thought that would be cool 😂.

How was your Monday?

Have you ever done a half marathon (or another race distance) relay? What was your team name?

What's your ideal romantic weekend getaway?