Mission accomplished!

20 miles run this week, all outdoors in the morning...including a yoga class and a track workout!  Bring it Spring!  I did get fouled up on Friday.  I think the kid might have access to the blog, he can't count past 3 but somehow caught on to that I was bragging about his ability to sleep through the night.  As a lesson, he ensured that we had some quality time post 1am on Thursday into Friday and as a result I bailed on my 6:30am run.  Leaving it to today which was already booked with a yoga class.  What to do?  Run to yoga!  A quick 4 miles later I was on my mat with my legs screaming at me.  Fast forward to now and all workouts are complete, lunch is in the belly, and the kid is napping so I'll call it a win!  What about next week??   I'm going to call for more of the same with a long run of 7ish.  I'm also starting to debate my schedule, currently I'm running longer on Sunday's and am wondering if I should switch this Saturday's.  The benefit to Saturday's is more people to run with, the downfall is that Saturday includes some nice family time that doesn't easily transfer to Sunday's.  A few more weeks and we can hit the farmer's market after breakfast and then go on with our day.  It would be nice to run with some other people but with pace and distance all accounted for I'm running solo anyways so why not do it on the day that is most convient for us?  Ah, the problems of runners :)

Food you ask?  Lets see, I emptied the fridge this morning with a tofu scramble that included some diced tomatoes, nutritional yeast and dairy less cheese.  Leftovers were had for lunch.  Not sure what dinner will bring, might be nice enough to grill!  Last night I discovered the vegan pizza from Pizza Gourmet and devoured it!!!  Headed outside next with my trusty chia fresca with coconut water.

Ran 4 miles today.

Track!

Back to track in the first time in a year and a half and happy to report I survived it!  Last time I tried to go back the kid was still too little, (like still nursing and not sleeping little) so it was a bad mix.  Now he's almost ready for college and sleeps til 8 so I'm hoping this goes better.  Outdoor track started this week and I'm trying to make a commitment to the Thursday morning group; I want the speed benefits that result from this torture.  I rolled up for the 6am start and found 2 people to warm up with, an easy mile and a quarter.  The workout was 4x800 and my times were as follows: 2:02, 2:01, 1:55, 1:53.  I wasn't sure how to run these so just stayed on the heels of the lady in pink (later learned her name is Jennifer).  We breezed through them fairly easily, taking turns leading.  I am always reminded of my first track workout where I showed up in sweats and tennis shoes having no idea what they were talking about!  This week has been pretty good, got outdoors yesterday while the sun was out and have plans for another early morning run tomorrow with Jeff.  If that happens I will have successfully hit all my planned runs...outside and before breakfast!!  YAY!  Now lets discuss the food plan, this am I devoured my english muffin, kale, avocado, veggie patty sandwich.  Just finished my chia fresca, lunch will be an Amy's black bean burrito.  I'm thinking dinner will be sauteed kale with mushrooms and onion with some left over quinoa there might also be some leftover sauce lurking in the fridge that I'll toss it in from earlier in the week.  Just an FYI - I'm trying to limit dairy and added sugar and have been meat free for just over a year.  I didn't eat before track and could have used a little something, just not sure what.  I don't really get up early enough before the workout to eat anything substantial. 

Ran 4 miles today

29 degrees

I'm ancy for real spring weather as most of us are at this point, my garden has been cleared and is ready for some plants!!  Yesterday I got a taste of it, almost 50 and sunny allowing for a comfortable run around Lincoln Woods sans gloves, hat and long pants.  Motivated by that I renewed my effort to get outdoors and focus more on morning workouts so I texted Jeff.  Misery loves company and I'm always less likely to flake when there is someone waiting.  Plans were set for 6am, I was ready.  Til I crawled out of bed and saw that it was 29 and not anywhere near 50.  Damn it!  There were a few moments where I thought about sending a cancellation text but no no I had to go.  And with all that whining it wasn't that bad.  Gloves came off at some point and I could have done with 1 less layer.  Conversing about marathon training, yes I said marathon training (more on that later), made the miles tick by.  I will say the legs didn't feel too bad following the hills from yesterday.  The other thing that's happening is that I'm making a real effort to change my eating habits, so followed up today's run with a chia fresca (lemon, coconut water, table spoon of chai seeds) and avocado and veggie sausage sandwich (eziekal muffin, earth balance, avocado, kale, Morning Star veggie sausage patty and veg cheese).  Currently waiting on my hearts of palm salad with beans, corn, avocado (also featuring spinach, red onion, bell peppers and a cashew/parlsey/citrus dressing)!!  Yum-O!

Ran 4 miles today.

Oh Hi, It's me. I'm back

Blog neglect...guilty as charged.  Sorry!  Between illness, work and travel I forgot, and while I'm fessing up I have no idea where my training is at.  Again, see above excuses.  I don't know how you people with kids and day jobs do it?!?!  I'm working at getting back to early morning workouts and it's been a slow transition.  Today I was up at 4ish and running before 5 but that was because Baby Watch 2013 was driving me crazy, waiting for news that I'm an Auntie again! So what's the plan?  I'm aiming for 24/25ish miles this week.  Even with my blog neglect and not knowing when to run, I've been able to keep my miles in the low 20's.  Not anything to brag about but enough to keep the fitness from completely disappearing.  Outdoor track starts again next week and in keeping with my morning plan, I think I'll catch up with them next Thursday.

I do feel the need to share my crazy running in Mexico story, we were staying on this resort in Cancun and had planned to keep up with the running.  Headed out on Thursday and ran around the resort taking in the locations of all bars.  Got in a decent 4 miles and found our motivation to keep running in the 80 degree weather by viewing our fellow resort guests sprawled around the pool.  Friday was more of the same and it was starting to get old.  So Sat we head out and decide to run on the beach.  The resort was huge, and less built up if we ran right out of the resort and down the beach.  Got about a mile til we ran by a little hut on stilts with a crabby man holding a machine gun.  Mind you, we were on the beach.  There was NOTHING other than some shore birds, no warning signs either I might add!!  I have no idea what he was waiting for, but I can tell you that our mile back to the resort was a little quicker than the mile out to the watch tower.  Happy to be home where my biggest worry is confusing the paper boy for an early morning threat!

Ran 4 miles today

6 of 17

Welcome March!  And like most New Englander's I am declaring winter to be over.  I'm also declaring an end to my dreadmill hibernation.  This most recent schedule change is going to help with that plan.  The Y is no longer as convienient as it had been, so I'm headed back to morning runs.  I should be able to do this, I have to be able to do this.  My plan is a 6am wake up call, roll out of bed into running clothes and head out the front door.  I might even encourage my lazy dog to join me, since Joe is going to be, keeping the bed warm , manning the kid's wake up and breakfast.  So what about this past week? 25 miles with a long run this am of 9.  6 mile tempo run at 8:45 pace on Sat followed by a 9 mile long run at a 9:30 pace.  The best part of my long run today, is that my last 2 miles were my fastest 2!  Already feeling better about my return to the pavement.  What am I doing next week?  More of the same, will add in those 4 miles I missed this week to get the miles back to just under 30.  Long run will stay at 9 and will continue with cross training.

Ran 9 miles today.