Minimum Expectations...

Now that the blogging streak is over I've really been struggling to meet the minimum expectations that I set for myself. Granted, it has been a very busy couple of weeks... but that's life right? At least that's my life. I don't remember the last time I had a week where I thought "Oh I really wish I had more to do" 😉. Despite having my plan to do a post yesterday (and even starting one yesterday) things just didn't quite work out that way...

I take some comfort in the fact that I've at least been keeping up the minimum expectations with my running streak...

As the countdown to Ragnar continues my team has been losing runners (for very valid reasons) and as of right now my total mileage has increased from ~15 miles to ~26 miles. Training needs to start ramping up 💪. I have 4 more weekends that will facilitate "real" training for Ragnar (including this weekend but not including the weekend before Ragnar). The weekend before Ragnar is my birthday weekend so my runs won't involve a lot of mileage. And to be honest that works out well because I should be tapering the weekend before a race anyway 😉. 

So with only 4 training weekends left I need to work my way up to running 26 miles (over the course of 3 back-to-back weekend runs). My potential training schedule for the upcoming four weekends looks like this:

1. Saturday 4 miles; Sunday 6 miles = 10 miles (I should've run more than 1 mile this morning 😞) 

2. Friday 4 miles; Saturday 6 miles; Sunday 8 miles = 18 miles

3. Friday 4 miles; Saturday 8 miles; Sunday 10 miles = 22 miles

4. Friday 6 miles; Saturday 10 miles; Sunday 10 miles = 26 miles

And then on the weekend of my birthday & Mother's Day (May 13th & 14th) I'll just try and run as much as possible 😊. 

Do you run on your birthday?

Do you ever split up your weekend long runs?

What are your plans for this weekend?

Initiating Phase I

I added a few things to my reading list this month!

Both these magazines came in the mail today and they just happen to be about two of my favorite things: Trauma Nursing & Running 😊. I'm still in the middle of the novel I'm reading so I'll fit the magazines in between chapters 😉. 

This morning I ran to complete Day 101 of my run streak...

I've been trying to keep up with my morning runs this week so that I have my evenings free. This week will be just as busy as last week because, at the stroke of midnight Kai will be turning 16! In order to keep myself from drifting deep into a depressive state of denial I've been going through pictures of her, from when she was a little girl...

To still little but just not as little...

To not really little, but I'm definitely initiating Phase I of my denial that she is growing up 🙈...

Just three years ago she was embarking on her teenage years...

Three years before that she was celebrating the "double digit age" milestone...

But tomorrow she will kick off the 16th birthday celebrations which will continue straight through the weekend...

Is it just me or are the years going by too fast?

Do you read Runner's World magazine?

How has your running and training been going?

Friday's Things...

It's been a busy week with travel, conference lectures and poster presentations etc...

And even though it's been busy (and I decided not to continue the blog streak), I still feel like I'm posting less than I should be. However, in the unlikely event that I even remotely decided not to worry about my lack of posts, Facebook decided to remind me that my slacking off was noticeable...

Despite my lack of posts & updates (and my busy week) I'm still keeping up with my running streak...

And I'll have a few more days of St. Louis running before I head back to FL; during which I'll be spending my non-running time hanging out with the co-founder of my new Chicago Coalition (both Jane and I are trying to find a way to go back to Chicago)...

How was your week?

What's your favorite US city to visit? To live in?

Do you love/hate your Facebook notifications?

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...

source

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?