Calling All San Antonio RNR Runners!!!

i am going to be running the San Antonio Rock'n'Roll Marathon on the 4th.  i would looooooove to meet people!  i'll be at the expo on saturday around noon.  i'll be there for probably about 2 hours as i love walking around RNR expos and seeing all the booths.  saturday morning i will post a picture of what i'll be wearing so if you're there, it'll be easier for us to find each other, chat and take selfies together!  i'll be in San Antonio all evening saturday and then all of sunday (on sunday, i already have dinner plans and hopefully lunch plans too...Carina?  yes?) and then i'll be checking out of my hotel monday morning but am willing to hang out and have lunch with someone before heading back home.  shoot me a message on my facebook page for this blog or comment on the picture i post saturday morning to let me know you'll like to meet up and we'll make it happen!  i'm so excited!

Glasses & PRs

I have to say, I’m really happy with my decision to get an eye exam and go through with getting and wearing glasses.  Even though the doctor that did my exam said it wasn’t necessary to wear my glasses at all times…just when reading or while using a computer…I decided that it was just easier to wear them all the time.  However, I don’t yet have prescription sunglasses, so for now (until I get my new insurance card from Davis Vision) I will have to either run in my regular sunglasses, or in my regular glasses and be all squinty.  I’ll just make do with the regular sunglasses.  I should have my insurance card early next week, so I’ll be able to use my frame & lens allowance and get myself a 3^rd pair of regular glasses (I really want those red frames!) and some sporty sunglasses.  And then, instead of using the clip on sunglasses, I’ll just switch back and forth between the regular glasses and the prescription sunglasses.  Also, I’m really digging how I look and I’ve gotten boatloads of compliments on them.  everyone likes them.  I’ve been told I look “cool” and “stylish.”  Also, in one day last week, I got told by one coworker that he didn’t recognize me because I looked like a supervisor.  I had a detective ask me if I was the sergeant.  And then a patrol deputy asked me why I haven’t promoted yet.  Those were all huge boosters for me! 

I have not run much since the marathon.  It’s been mostly due to my work schedule, but partially due to me sleeping in so much this past weekend.  I was going to run a 10K run Saturday morning, but then I didn’t get up until 10am and I went on that shopping trip I already spoke about.  Then Saturday night I stayed up late to wait for my friend to get off work.  He came over and we stayed up late and it was almost 5am before I went to bed.  I tried to get up between 8 and 9 but that wasn’t happening.  I got up at noon.  Oh well.  So then I had grocery shopping to take care of so that I could meal prep for this week and some of next week.  I found a recipe for a BBQ paste rub roasted turkey, so I made that with my giant 21 pound bird.  When I carved it and put it in my biggest “Tupperware” container, it basically filled it up.  WOW!  And, of course, I missed the baggie of organs and they got cooked in the bag inside the turkey.  Never fails.  Then I made (for the 4^th time in the last year…it’s seriously one of my all-time favorite recipes!) the crockpot orange spiced sweet potatoes.  I also cooked up some whole berry cranberry sauce with coconut sugar.  The coconut sugar made it come out with the consistency of preserves.  So I’ve been eating it on toast!  And it’s quite tasty that way! 

I seriously PR’ed the 10K distance Sunday evening.  Oh, before I get into that, I *was* going to run 10+ miles on Sunday but because I woke up so late and then had all that grocery shopping and food prep to do, I didn’t have time…or, I should say, I didn’t have the sunlight left in the day to get it done.  Sunset was around 5:30 and I headed out the door to run a smidge after 5.  So that 10K run I didn’t get done Saturday morning happened Sunday evening.  So, yea, I seriously PR’ed!  My previous PR for a 10K distance was set during the Capital 2 Coast relay and was 57:52.  Now…NOW…my PR is 53:59!!!  I was just focusing on keeping all my miles under the 9 minute mark…the PR was just a bonus.  But, now that I’ve gotten a sub-54 minute 10K, achieving that 50 minute 10K at next year’s Cap10K doesn’t seem quite so farfetched after all.  So, on top of getting serious with the speed work ALL of next year, I’m going to get serious with the hill training.  I want to eat the hills during the Cap10K for breakfast!  Straight up devour them! 

Speaking of PRs, during the South Padre Marathon, I also snagged 2 new PRs...in the marathon and in the half marathon distance as well!  My previous half PR was 2:05:22…now my PR is 2:04:52.  Not a huge PR, but considering it was the beginning of a marathon, I’ll take it!  I know I can run a sub-2 hour half.  When I ran the Hill Country Halloween Half last month, I finished in 1:58:43.  That course is ¼ mile short, so I know I could have finished it in 2:02:00 or faster, easily.  And I had a little left in the tank when I finished, so I know if it had been the complete 13.1 that if I had pushed myself a little harder, then I could have finished sub-2.  And, my previous marathon PR was 4:35:17 and now it’s 4:29:53 (official race time was 4:29:51, however).  I had set a goal to PR every distance this year and I’ve done it.  I PR’ed the 5K with a time of 26:45, the 10K, the 8K/5mi, the 10mi, the half, the 30K (of course, I’ve only ever run a race that distance once), and the marathon.  So I’m setting the same goal for next year…PR everything!

I can’t believe it’s getting to the end of November.  Where did this month go?!?!?!  Like, seriously.  This month has just flown by.  November is a very busy month for me with the renaissance festival and races and overtime and meal prep, and trying to fit in time for friends on top of it all!  So hectic.  But, I love being busy.  And I’m excited for next month.  2 weeks off for my birthday!  I have a few projects I want to get done.  But I’ll save talking about those for when they happen.

I have regained about 10 pounds and I’m fairly disappointed in myself for that.  Granted it wasn’t entirely my fault that I gained it (thanks a lot birth control pill fiasco), but the fact that things have been back to how they should be for over a month now and I *STILL* have not relost the extra weight…tisk tisk tisk is all I have to say to myself in that regard.  I know right now it’s hard to lose the weight as I’m not running as much, but really that’s not much of an excuse.  I’ve cut my calories, but it’s not helping when I give into junk food here and there.  For the most part I’m not having urges and I’m having no cravings, but sometimes, when free food presents itself at work, I just can’t help myself.  And thanksgiving is today and I’m working 2 shifts at work, so that’s TWO thanksgiving spreads I’ll be participating in.  I’m going to TRY and be reasonable and just get a tiny bit of everything.  Just a taste of everything.  Try not to go bananas or hog wild with the food, you know?  I just need to watch what I’m putting in my mouth and count my calories and try and leave a deficit every day.  I was wanting to get back down to 150 by my birthday, but I’ll be happy if I can just get back down below 155 by my birthday and then 150 by the end of the year.  I think both of those are reasonable goals.  Speaking of goals, I need to work on my goals for December!  Better get crackin’!

Hello!

I’ve been a little silent lately and I’m sorry about that.  I’ve got quite a few race recaps typed up and ready to go, but I’ve been so busy and my mind so preoccupied that I just have either not had the time or the inclination to deal with much beyond work and running.  I’ve had so much on my mind the past month and have been battling myself within my head.  It’s not something I will talk about here because it’s just not appropriate for anything outside of my personal journaling.  I will say it has to do with a guy, but that’s as far as I’m willing to open up about that here.

Moving onto some positive stuff.  I got glasses!  I’ve needed them for quite some time but kept putting it off.  I’ve known since I was in high school that I had an astigmatism in my right eye.  I got glasses then, but I think either the doctor wrote the script for my glasses wrong or the eyeglass place got the script wrong with they made my lenses because when I wore them, my eye felt like it was being pulled from my head.  About 5 years ago, after my last eye exam, I got glasses, but again, I think the script was either written or carried out incorrectly because the glasses didn’t do anything at all for my vision.  So, I went to an eye doctor that does retina mapping and, let me say, it’s pretty cool and a great alternative to having your eyes dilated.  My retina are both normal and healthy.  She did the standard eye exam with the rows of letters and the different lens options where they ask is 1 or 2 better, etc etc.  She determined that not only did I have that astigmatism in my right eye that’d I’d always known about, but I had one in my left eye as well.  And they are not to the same degree.  I have a feeling that this was contributing to my migraines that I’ve been suffering for years.  She said that I did have a bit of a script for distance correction but that it was very slight and not the main issue and just wrote the script to correct the astigmatisms. 

I then went to Eyemart Express and found 2 frames that I loved.  I actually found 3, but their going deal is to buy one, get one heavily discounted.  No deal for 3 pairs and I wasn’t prepared to buy 4 pairs of glasses as I wanted to keep my out of pocket expenses below $300.  The two pairs of glasses cost me $170 after taxes.  Nailed it!

I paid the full price of the glasses myself as the lady at Eyemart couldn’t find me in the database (or whatever it’s called) for my vision insurance, so I wasn’t able to use my allowance to purchase the frames.  However, I called the insurance company a couple days later and discovered that I do indeed have an allowance and the lady there said she’d send me new insurance cards so that Eyemart can apply my allowance next time.  So, after I’ve gotten my card, I’ll go back and [hopefully] get that 3^rd pair of frames I really like plus a pair of sunglasses to wear while running and just generally while outside.

I was supposed to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend, but my friend that was supposed to go with me had vehicle troubles and couldn’t afford to fix his truck and go to the festival.  So I asked if his girlfriend still wanted to go and her and I could just do a girls’ weekend but she didn’t want to go without him.  So, I was set to go alone but really wanted someone to go with me.  I found a friend that could go, but couldn’t go until next weekend.  That works for me!  So I adjusted the costumes I’ll be wearing a little bit since next weekend is the Christmas themed weekend, so I’ll be putting together a Christmas pixie costume to wear.

Today I went to the mall in search of green leggings to put with that Christmas pixie costume.  I went into a few different stores and didn’t find any green leggings.  Well, I found some NEON green leggings.  Wah wah.  Wrong shade of green to go with the Christmas outfit.  So I nixed that idea.  I ended up in Claire’s and they were having a buy 3 get 3 free sale on everything in the store and they had some really cute Christmas stuff, so I raided that and got some good stuff.  So, since I didn’t find what I went to the mall for, I OF COURSE bought just about everything else in the mall as there were some pretty good sales going on.  I ended up with 4 dresses, 2 skirts, a tank top, 2 bottles of perfume, 3 sports bras, and 4 sets of gauged earrings all for less than $250.  I only paid full price for 2 things…the 2 skirts.  One was cheap and the other was completely worth the price.

I got myself almost completely caught up with my running scrapbook.  There are a couple pages that are done except that they still need titles done and then I’m waiting for the photos from the marathon and then I can do that page and then I’ll be 100% caught up on that!  while I’m on my birthday vacation next month, I want to get all caught up with my scrap journal.  I’m so ridiculously far behind with that.  I haven’t touched it since the beginning of August.  Ugh.  I’m thinking that when I fill up that journal that I might switch and start doing my scrap journal in Project Life style. 

Last week, I did a little shopping as well.  Scored some really cute and sexy dresses…plus I got these awesome shoes that I love.  They are rubberized canary yellow Chuck Taylor’s!!!  And they’re so comfy!  Making me even more consider getting some knee high all black Chuck Taylor’s to wear to work.

I ordered a wonderful shirt a few weeks ago and it came in the mail the other day.  It says “my patronus is a unicorn” and I love it.

I had to take my cat to the vet because my apartment complex won’t accept my lease renewal until they have current vet and vaccination records and a photo of him.  So I did that this week as well.

I also finally got new tires for my car.  The dealership first told me like 3 months ago that I needed them, but I didn’t have the money until now.  So now I have new tires and it’s amazing how much better my car handles.  Who woulda known?  Haha.  Probably just about everybody. 

Oh and I took a new picture of my running wall.  It’s getting pretty epic now.  and I’m going to need to buy yet another medal holder.  Haha.  #runnerproblems

Marathon Training week 16

This was the first full week of actual tapering after last Sunday’s 22 mile long run that I stupidly did at basically MGP.  I mean, at least I know for a FACT that I can do it, but still, not the smartest thing I’ve done.  Not that I’m actually known for doing smart things while marathon training.  But I’m getting better about it, I swear!  So, my mileage this past week was cut a good amount since I’m now in taper mode.  Needless to say, I LOOOOOVE running and I love running lots of miles.  But, I like to dial it back before I get burnt out like I did last year.  Not that I got burnt out because I was running lots of miles.  I got burn out, I think, because it wasn’t challenging and it was super hot and yea…running wasn’t fun last summer at all.  Anyway, I was starting to feel the inklings of the possibility of being burnt out, so the taper came at the exact right moment! 

• Tuesday: nothing, worked overtime Monday night.

• Wednesday: 4 mile shakeout run.  I needed a nice easy run after Sunday’s ridiculousness of a long run.  Ha!  It felt great, but my calves are being twingey and the part of my ankle that I sprained so badly last year (the strap that goes across the front of the ankle, not sure if it’s a ligament or tendon, but leaning toward it’s a ligament) started hurting and aching.  So I’m stretching it out.  It’s probably just the taper.  I’ve never had it before where I got aches and pains due to the drop in and relaxing of the weekly mileage before, but that’s the only thing that makes sense.

• Thursday: nothing, worked overtime Wednesday night.

• Friday: nothing, worked overtime again Thursday night.

• Saturday: this was supposed to be a double header of races.  However I got my very first DNS (did not start) because I’m occasionally dumb and I mixed up the race start time with the packet pickup start time.  I thought that packet pickup started at 4pm…nope the race started at 4pm.  I discovered my error at 5pm when I was getting ready to head to the race.  Wah wah.  So, just one race this day, but a great race it was (I know, I know, I owe you guys so many race recaps right now.  I’ve written them all, I just need to post them…but, stay tuned for the race report in this instance again if you want more deets).  The Hill Country Halloween Half Marathon.  It was a fantastic run in full costume, including facepaint!

• Sunday: nothing, went to the renaissance festival.

• Monday: nothing, played hookie from running…slept in instead. 

*******************************************************************

So, this was a fairly uneventful week of running for me.  Good kick off to my taper!  As the week went on, the twinges in my calves and the aches in my ankle where I sprained it subsided, so my assumption that they were taper related was most likely justified and correct.

Total miles for week #16: 16.85

October Review / November Goals

Let’s recap my October goals and see how I did with them…

 

• run at least 140 miles (B goal of at least 125)…this is getting serious folks!!! –  SUCCESS!  I capped off the month with 144.66 miles.

• achieve my weight loss goal of 145 and/or 23% body fat – FAIL.  But in my defense I had hormone issues that made everything ridiculously difficult for me and I just didn’t know how to cope with it as it’s never happened before so I was just out of control…and then I just had one heck of a time getting myself back on track.  But, I *AM* back on track now, so all is well.

• get down to a 29 inch waist – FAIL (see previous for the why)

• work toward getting in the habit of actually doing strength training 1-2 times per week…at the VERY LEAST do abs/core and hammy/glutes workouts (these will be at home or in the apt complex fitness room as I suspended my gym membership for now) – FAIL.  No strength training happened AT ALL this month.  Ugh.

• continue with the paleo lifestyle – FAIL (again, see above for the why)

• PR in the 5K (again!) – FAIL, but I did PR in the 10K…twice! 

• do speed work once a week (tempo, progression, sprints, steady pace) – NAILED IT!!!

• focus on building speed during my long runs with fast finishes – NAILED IT!!!

• continue to track every single thing I eat/drink – 85% SUCCESS…I had some rough days this month where I either couldn’t figure out how to track what I had eaten or just didn’t want to face reality. 

• do my best hit 12.5K+ steps a day (I changed my step goal because 15K was just too hard to even get close to on days I wasn’t able to do a structured workout, so I lowered it) – MOSTLY A SUCCESS.  I did my best but some days I just wasn’t able to or just didn’t feel like putting forth the effort because I was tired/exhausted. 

 

And now, moving on to what I want to do with the month of November!

 

• run at least 75 miles (taper pre-marathon and then recovery post-marathon, followed up with going straight into tapering for my next marathon!)

• run South Padre Island Marathon in 4:15:00 or faster, or at the very least just get a new PR in the marathon

• strength training 1-2 times per week…at the VERY LEAST do abs/core and hammy/glutes workouts (these will be at home or in the apt complex fitness room as I suspended my gym membership for now) once a week on Saturdays (I REALLY need to do this…like seriously)

• start doing daily push-ups

• do my best hit 12.5K+ steps a day (I changed my step goal because 15K was just too hard to even get close to on days I wasn’t able to do a structured workout, so I lowered it)

• get as close to 150 as I can by the 12^th so I’m as close to an optimal body weight while running the marathon

• achieve my weight loss goal of 145 and/or 23% body fat

• get down to a 29 inch waist

• get back on track with the paleo lifestyle and stick with at least 85% paleo adherence

• get back on the wagon with tracking every single thing I eat/drink

 

*****************************************************************

 

Traveling: again, not much going on in this department.  I did a relay race (the Capital to Coast relay…recap coming soon, stay tuned!) that started in downtown Austin, TX and took our team of 12 all the way to Corpus Christi, TX.  My friend Amanda and I did drive to Plantersville outside of Houston for a day at the renaissance festival.  That’s always fun!  And I definitely always love getting to spend time with her!

Running: my very first run of the month was actually 3 separate runs done in one morning adding up to a total of 19 miles run at a combined average pace of 9:29!  These runs all put together made me more excited to run SPI next month than I’ve ever been.  After these runs, I have no doubts that I can hit my 9:43 pace goal for SPI!  Then, the very next day I nailed a completely steady paced 4 mile shakeout run, hitting 10:49 on 3 of the miles and 10:48.15 on the other mile.  And then there was my final long run before I started my taper, the 22 miler at a 9:45 average pace!  BOOM!  So I’m pretty happy with all that.  Looking back on October, it’s really hard for me to pick just a few runs that stand out for one reason or another because I rocked the majority of my runs in October.  Seriously rocked them.  October was just a month of epic runs.  But let me tell you, I was ready for the taper when it started.  So ready.   

 

Reading: still trying to work my way through the Paleo Manifesto, but I think I’m giving up on it…for now.  It’s not that it’s a difficult or horrible book, it’s all me.  The past year I’ve had a really hard time focusing on reading ANYTHING that’s not on a computer screen.  Ugh.  I need to change that and set aside at least an hour once a week, during the weekend would be the best I think, and dedicate it specifically to reading an actual book.

 

Watching: not much, really.  I mean, I DVR some shows and kinda half-ass watch them while I clean and do meal prep on Sundays, but nothing new.

 

Eating: trying to stick to paleo, but have been fairly unsuccessful due to hormone issues and a lack of knowledge on how to deal with how that affects me as a whole.  Thankfully, I got things straightened out, so it should all be back to normal now and I should be able to get back on track with the 85%-ish paleo way of eating.

 

Planning: to totally crush my goal finish time at SPI marathon!

 

Wearing: sports bras, shorty shorts and running skirts!!  And dresses…dresses, dresses, dresses...dresses all the time.  And if not a dress then my denim mini skirt and a fitted shirt.

 

Working on: being more diligent with eating paleo the majority of the time.  Also, working on eating less.  I understand that even though I’m eating way more calories with the paleo lifestyle that they are higher quality calories, but I do need to rein it in a little bit.  I think that I could stand to cut some calories here and there.  I mean, I did pretty okay at maintaining my weight this month, but I’d really like to get down to 145 sooner rather than later, so I think the only way to get there like I want to is to cut out some of the snacks.  I need to do volume foods like lettuce and celery and cucumber.  Things that fill me up without filling me out, you know?

 

Loving: my Altra Olympus 1.5 and the Altra One (I think mine are the 2.5 model) running shoes.  Holy cow the Olympus are like running on clouds!  I’m also completely digging the cooler, fall temps!  They make me feel invincible when I run…like I can run so fast forever!

 

Listening to: Jango internet radio!  I love it!  Onto my usual list of a few of my favorite songs from the past month: “Pity Party” by Melanie Martinez (and just about any of her other songs that pops up on Jango), basically pretty much anything by 21 Pilots (especially "Lane Boy"), “Hold Me Down” by Halsey.  Also, during my runs where I want to go faster, I’m totally obsessed with listening to military cadence on runs I want to really push myself on now. 

 

Looking forward to: running the South Padre Island Marathon on the 12^th and hopefully getting a huge PR!  Cutting back my monthly mileage a smidge.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOOOOOOVE running lots and lots of miles, but I like to dial it back before I get burnt out and I could feel that coming up.  So the taper came at the exact right time!  Also, looking forward to wearing the yellow plaid flannel shirt I bought when it starts getting cooler.  It was a “boyfriend” cut so it was all loose on the sides, so I used my handy dandy serger sewing machine and tapered it so now it’s a fitted flannel!  HA!  Take that!

 

Things I did well: RUN!  Seriously, I totally nailed my runs this month.  Which is good because it is now taper time and then show time in less than 1 week (at the delayed posting of this post) for SPI!  Let the nervousness and anxiety about whether I did everything I could have to make sure I hit my goal begin!  I’ve gotten really good at picking a pace to run and then hitting it and holding it!  I’m doing what I’ve termed as “running purposefully.” 

 

Things I can improve: making better choices when faced with eating meals out.  I need to not treat eating out as an excuse or a reason to just say f*ck it to healthy eating and healthy choices and just let myself pig out on junk.  Also, when I get stressed I give in too easily.  I don’t feel good the next day or even for a few days after eating like and I know that, so I need to keep that in mind when making decisions about eating out.  Most places have fairly healthy choices and I can almost always make what I order more conforming to the paleo way of eating…it just might involve annoying the waiter/waitress and the cook/chef.  But I have to take care of myself and making better choices is always step #1 in that regard.