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?

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?

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!

Vacation Eve & Streaking

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

source

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...

Taking A "Sick Day"

I feel like how the actors look in the NyQuil/DayQuil commercials before they take the medicine. Except, in my case, even after I took NyQuil last night I still felt sick. I was up for most of the night coughing and as a result I was exhausted today. So I'm taking a "sick day". Not in the true sense of the term (since I went to work... and I ran... and I'm writing this post) but at the very least I'm keeping things simple today. So once I got home I did a quick one mile run...

And this is my short and sweet "keeping up with the blog streak" post to share it with you. And now I'm going to bed (well in a few minutes 😉). Before I go to sleep I wanted to share the information about the ZOOMA race series and my discount code again because it's not too late to register and there is a virtual option for the 10th anniversary Annapolis race...

The Annapolis event is on June 3rd, so if you wanted to fit in a half marathon before hell rises Summer starts, then this would be a great option. But if June is too soon or you would rather wait until Fall, there are other races to choose from as well 😊.  

I'm going to try and catch up on rest now. Hopefully this won't be me tonight...

How was your Thursday?

What medicine do you take when you're sick?

The 2017 Miami Beach 1/2 Marathon {Race Recap}

Normally I would be able to share all the prelim stuff leading up to a race (the expo, packet pick up etc), but I was in Pittsburgh for all of that. Thankfully my friend Suzanne was gracious enough to pick up my race bib for me while I was away. And since I was car pooling with her and her hubby, Jeff, I got my stuff on race morning.

Once we got there the big challenge was parking. All the garages were full and it took a while to navigate to a spot that would be safe. After that though the rest of the "pre-race" stuff went smoothly and we met up with fellow running buddies for some pics...

(Andy, me & Suzanne)

(Andy, Debbie & me)

The race is less... "formal" than some of the other (bigger) Miami races, so we didn't have a structured corral system. It was a rolling start which means runners lined up according to their estimated pace. I didn't actually see anyone with pacing signs but I was told there were a few pacers out there...

Sweat, Smiles & Stapes...

I'm babysitting my niece and nephew tonight, but when they got to my house I still hadn't completed my daily run. So once they finished eating and I got them settled I decided to take advantage of the "downtime" and run my mile. It was slow and felt like a struggle, but I'm glad I was able to finish it...

Then I went inside and had this conversation with my niece...

Niece: You're done already?

Me: Yes, I only did a mile

Niece: You were gone for one minute

Me: Well, it was 12 minutes actually

Niece: You're sweating

Me: Thanks honey bunny, I know

Niece: Why are you sweating so much if you only ran for one minute?

Me: Twelve minutes... but it's hot outside.

Niece: Hmmm... that's a lot of sweat Aunty LeAnne

Me: Time for bed 😑.

(I'm just kidding about that last one 😂)

Prior to the run and my niece's evaluation of my sweat production, I had a somewhat productive day at work. I'm putting the final touches on my poster and it will soon be ready for the "grand reveal". It's really coming together though and I'm excited for the opportunity to share the non-accidental trauma (child abuse) guideline that I worked so tirelessly on. I think that all nurses have a set of patients that they feel really passionate about advocating for. I've been a Pediatric ER & Trauma nurse (in some capacity) over the past 12 years and it's been both rewarding and heartbreaking. Accidents happen and sometimes kids get hurt... that's just a reality of the world we live in. But when a child is intentionally injured by an adult who should be caring for them... that's a problem. Anyway, once the poster is completely ready the image will be sharper, but until then...

(this is the general layout so far)

A1A Races Pics & Other Race News...

Race photos are in!!!! First let me say that my current running related financial situation necessitates a focused allocation of financial resources towards race entry fees and travel. As a result I'm not currently motivated (financially or otherwise) to purchase race photos. And I certainly won't purchase them for a race that sucked. BUT I will share them and willingly give all the photo credit to the official photographers and their employer (thank you MarathonFoto!). I happen to like the pictures from the A1A half on Sunday because I look like I'm having a great time (even though inside I felt like I was dying)...

(not the best running form (arms should not cross over body) but still a nice pic 😎)

I think I must have been in a hypoglycemia induced state of delusion during which my facial expressions were not accurately reflecting the agony I was actually feeling...

And you can tell that's what's probably happening because I seem to be waving to photographers that may not actually be there, while completely ignoring the ones who are taking my race pictures...

Training Tips & Sunday Specials...

Today's Training Tip: Do not eat a pint of ice cream and go to bed late the night before a long run. 

I was exhausted and sluggish for this morning's long run. I can deal with "running while tired" (I've done that before) but running while tired and loaded with 720 unnecessary sugar calories was not the best idea. In any event I got it done. I still can't figure out how to turn off the auto save feature on my Garmin vivoactive (if you happen to know please tell me because it's the most annoying thing) so my run was saved in two segments: 3.77 miles "before the restroom break" and 6.45 miles "after the restroom break" for a total of 10.22 miles:

(average pace: ~ 12:00 minutes/mile)

Overall it was a decent run (even though I felt like I was slowing Mimi down)...

And after the run I went home, took a shower, and went back to sleep for a few hours. I gave Kai strict instructions to wake me up again at 11:45am so that I didn't sleep the entire day; and when I finally got up we went for a special Mother-Daughter lunch date at one of my favorite restaurants...

(@JAlexander's)