It's 2016! I don't think I realized my last blog post was from October 2015 when I did the Lake Powell Half. Whoopsie! I'll try to be brief in summarizing the end of last year and the beginning of this one.
After Lake Powell, I did a Veteran’s Day 5k and the local Thanksgiving 10-miler in November. We also put an offer in on a new-to-us house (that we ended up getting and closing on in December!). The new home base is much closer to work for me, a tiny bit closer to work for my husband, and a bigger space than we had before. We all love it, including the fur babies. But during November and December, my running and overall fitness took kind of a backseat to organizing finances, packing, moving, unpacking, getting the old house ready to sell, etc. etc. I gained about 10 lbs from stress eating during this time. I’m back on the wagon now that it’s March 2016 and the old house should be closing later this month, but that’s also part of the reason why I haven’t blogged in almost 6 months! In December, all I really remember doing was the Desert Classic 30k with my soon-to-be-marathoner friend. Despite the fact that she hated the course (which they had changed from previous years, but hilly enough to be annoying), I think we had a great race that day.
In January 2016, I had two 20-mile runs in training for the Surf City Marathon, and also did the AZ Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon just for fun. This was my first time doing the half marathon course, and it was a bit more challenging than I had expected! I managed a 2:13 time, which I was satisfied with since I hadn’t really been training to run anything fast. This is what I guess my average half marathon time would be.
All my training was leading up to the Surf City Marathon on February 7th in Huntington Beach, CA. I ran this with Kelli, one of my long-time friends (the same one that hated Desert Classic) and Running to Happiness’s Laurel – for both of them this was their first 26.2. It was my fourth marathon, and I paced with Kelli in the hopes that she would have a good experience. Despite the unseasonably hot day, both of those ladies became marathoners! And they are both still sticking with the sport (Laurel went and signed up for a 50 mile race, WTF?!), so that’s a good sign. Now I’ll have buddies for the next marathon I want to do – at least, that was what I was hoping to get out of it!
Since the marathon, I ran the IMS Marathon relay and volunteered for Ragnar Del Sol. I have a few races coming up just for fun and to try to maintain my fitness level. Time to update the running calendar!
Still on the bucket list is my sub-2 hour half marathon. I won’t even attempt this until the fall when it cools off a bit, but I even went to such lengths as to (*gasp*) hire a coach to get me there! Yes, I found a coach willing to take me on! Her name is Tara and she can be found at www.askcoachtara.com and on Facebook. I found her to be reasonably priced, knowledgeable, and willing to work with my fitness level and schedule to get me towards this sub-2 goal. A big plus, she didn’t discount the idea to be completely crazy or unattainable. I’m only less than 2 weeks into my plan so I don’t know if my running ability is any different, but I do feel more motivated, now more than ever!
And then, after listening to Eat & Run on audiobook, and reading Laurel’s blog posts, I’m toying with the idea of going to a vegetarian/vegan/plant-based diet. I don’t know for sure that I could do it 100%. I really, really love cheese. A lot. And, I’m pretty sure my husband won’t eat like that, so all of the really great meat and dairy products will still be in my house. I don’t want to have to cook twice as many things... So many potential roadblocks… But I’m at least looking into it more. I like the idea of not being so tired all the time, and being able to run farther and recover faster. I even had my first green smoothie for breakfast today. Next? We take over the world!
For the record, if you’re like me and unsure if you’re going to like something called a “green smoothie”, I found these at Costco and I think they’re a great option to start your experiment: Rader Farms Fresh Start Smoothie Blend
I’m pretty sure the contents aren’t organic, BUT I was afraid of buying a bunch of fresh produce, cutting up the produce and having my smoothie be absolutely disgusting, thereby wasting perfectly good produce. I really hate wasting food; this at least got me out of my comfort zone long enough to try one. I will definitely be finishing this bag and figuring out how to make more! Did I mention how much I love cheese?
After Lake Powell, I did a Veteran’s Day 5k and the local Thanksgiving 10-miler in November. We also put an offer in on a new-to-us house (that we ended up getting and closing on in December!). The new home base is much closer to work for me, a tiny bit closer to work for my husband, and a bigger space than we had before. We all love it, including the fur babies. But during November and December, my running and overall fitness took kind of a backseat to organizing finances, packing, moving, unpacking, getting the old house ready to sell, etc. etc. I gained about 10 lbs from stress eating during this time. I’m back on the wagon now that it’s March 2016 and the old house should be closing later this month, but that’s also part of the reason why I haven’t blogged in almost 6 months! In December, all I really remember doing was the Desert Classic 30k with my soon-to-be-marathoner friend. Despite the fact that she hated the course (which they had changed from previous years, but hilly enough to be annoying), I think we had a great race that day.
In January 2016, I had two 20-mile runs in training for the Surf City Marathon, and also did the AZ Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon just for fun. This was my first time doing the half marathon course, and it was a bit more challenging than I had expected! I managed a 2:13 time, which I was satisfied with since I hadn’t really been training to run anything fast. This is what I guess my average half marathon time would be.
All my training was leading up to the Surf City Marathon on February 7th in Huntington Beach, CA. I ran this with Kelli, one of my long-time friends (the same one that hated Desert Classic) and Running to Happiness’s Laurel – for both of them this was their first 26.2. It was my fourth marathon, and I paced with Kelli in the hopes that she would have a good experience. Despite the unseasonably hot day, both of those ladies became marathoners! And they are both still sticking with the sport (Laurel went and signed up for a 50 mile race, WTF?!), so that’s a good sign. Now I’ll have buddies for the next marathon I want to do – at least, that was what I was hoping to get out of it!
Since the marathon, I ran the IMS Marathon relay and volunteered for Ragnar Del Sol. I have a few races coming up just for fun and to try to maintain my fitness level. Time to update the running calendar!
Still on the bucket list is my sub-2 hour half marathon. I won’t even attempt this until the fall when it cools off a bit, but I even went to such lengths as to (*gasp*) hire a coach to get me there! Yes, I found a coach willing to take me on! Her name is Tara and she can be found at www.askcoachtara.com and on Facebook. I found her to be reasonably priced, knowledgeable, and willing to work with my fitness level and schedule to get me towards this sub-2 goal. A big plus, she didn’t discount the idea to be completely crazy or unattainable. I’m only less than 2 weeks into my plan so I don’t know if my running ability is any different, but I do feel more motivated, now more than ever!
And then, after listening to Eat & Run on audiobook, and reading Laurel’s blog posts, I’m toying with the idea of going to a vegetarian/vegan/plant-based diet. I don’t know for sure that I could do it 100%. I really, really love cheese. A lot. And, I’m pretty sure my husband won’t eat like that, so all of the really great meat and dairy products will still be in my house. I don’t want to have to cook twice as many things... So many potential roadblocks… But I’m at least looking into it more. I like the idea of not being so tired all the time, and being able to run farther and recover faster. I even had my first green smoothie for breakfast today. Next? We take over the world!
For the record, if you’re like me and unsure if you’re going to like something called a “green smoothie”, I found these at Costco and I think they’re a great option to start your experiment: Rader Farms Fresh Start Smoothie Blend
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