North Meets South + Two Weeks to Go!

Hello lovelies! It has been a while, I know. I was busy all weekend romping on the beach, shopping on King Street, and drinking way too much wine with my BFF who now lives in DC. Friday however, I did manage to get in a measly 6 mile run. It was good, it was easy, and it was pretty quick for me. My last mile came in at 7:47!

I was planning on also getting in my 12 miler at some point, but really, there was just too much drinking for my light weight self and I didn't want to leave my guests at home alone without me for 2 hours while I ran...so I just cooked them lots of yummy food instead and decided to do my run tonight! Whatever, it's my taper and I'll do what I want.

**She has most of the weekend's pictures on her camera, so better ones should be surfacing later on this week.

Here's the weekend recap:

Thursday they arrived around 2:30, and I got home from work around 4:30. (Matt was sweet enough to pick them up at the airport.) We headed straight to Red's on Shem Creek for happy hour where we also ate some dinner and did some dolphin watching. We might have come home and ordered pizza. Maybe.


Friday morning I got up to run, then I made everyone a big breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon and toast. Then we went walking around Charleston/shopping/catching up and the boys eventually parted ways to go shooting. Yep, with guns. At a range. I was perfectly content with the shopping! Oh, and then we went and got a much needed pedicure. We might have also had some mimosas. Then I made stuffed chicken and baked sweet potato/regular potato fries and we played Scene It Seinfeld while continuing to drink.


Saturday morning I got up bright and early and made whole wheat flax pancakes with turkey bacon. On mine I added greek yogurt, PB and bananas. My pancakes are awesome btw. Then we headed to Isle of Palms beach and got sunburnt/a little drunkskies/the boys played horseshoes for 4 hours. The BFF also managed to get shat on by a seagull, literally less than a minute after I said, "I really hope I don't get shat on again." (It has happened to me 3 times before.) Then we went out to dinner downtown at the Noisy Oyster, hit up Wet Willie's for a Call a Cab, and played darts at Brick until we were about to pass out with exhastion.

This is how things were looking through my eyes Saturday night. Really dark and a little blurry.

Sunday morning we got up and ate MORE turkey bacon, biscuits, and I decided to do a "make your own" omelet station where everyone got to choose their own omelet fillers which included ham, black olives, steamed broccoli, chopped summer squash & zucchini, fresh mozzerella, two different kinds of feta & diced tomato. I make pretty damn good breakfasts I must say! Then we headed out to Folly Beach for a few more hours in the sun/more horseshoes/and a trip to Taco Boy for lunch! Oh and the BFF's boy got shat on as well! It was much worse than when she did... Later than night we grilled out bratwursts with cilantro lime slaw and played Spades.




We had a very relaxing and fun weekend and I was sad to see them leave this morning at 6 AM!! Although I know they are ready to be home in DC relaxing on their last day of vacay before heading back to work.

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So....tonight I am running 12 miles, and hopefully I will be okay enough tomorrow to continue on with my running without a rest day. I don't want to push the schedule back this week any more than I have to. These next TWO WEEKS before my first marathon are going to be filled with clean and simple eating, structured exercise and an all out detox to prepare myself for the race on May 2nd.

Any seasoned marathoners have any tips for me for these final two weeks?

19.2 Miles of Pure Pain + TARHEELS in the Final Four!

Oh man! Yesterday was such a hard run for me! I had on the schedule 20 miles, and I waited until Sunday to run it because I skipped my Wednesday run and did it Thursday morning, so my Thursday run I moved to Saturday morning (b/c we had friends over Friday night -see below to meet them). My Saturday morning workout went well but little did I know it would leave me sore as hell Sunday morning!

I woke up around 8ish (way later than I had hoped) and just could not get motivated to get out the door! So I drank some coffee and watched some TV and then headed out around 9:30 with two GU's (Strawberry Banana is no comparison to Tri Berry even if it is a dollar cheaper), my iPod and some sunglasses. My butt and legs were KILLING me from doing sprints, squats, lunges and leg lifts on Saturday, so I was worried about how the run would go but I knew I couldn't wimp out on it with the marathon less than a month away!

As soon as I started out, I knew it was going to be rough. I was going way slower than normal and my legs just felt extremely heavy. I made a 5 mile loop and then ran back by my apartment (really wanting to just duck inside and call it a day) then I headed out for a 15 mile out and back. I started having to take walk breaks around that time (which I try never to do) and took my first GU around mile 6. I got down to the battery waterfront of downtown, and at mile 7 my iPod died even though it had been charging all night!

It was like a sign that this run was meant for disaster.

So I thought about what I could do, considered cutting the run short around mile 8 and 9, and talked myself into just doing at least 15-16. I kept telling myself that I had to keep going, even if it meant I had to run/walk the entire 20 miles! So that is exactly what I did and managed not to cut it short at all. My legs kept getting worse and hurt with every step, but I just kept pushing myself and thinking that it was okay if I had to run for a mile or so and then walk for a minute or two. I wasn't happy about it, but I managed to finish.

My out and back was a little shorter than I had planned for some reason, so the whole "run" ended up being only 19.2. I considered extending it to the full 20 at the end, but I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference because my body was just dunzo at that point. So I stretched as much as I could, came inside and collapsed, and talked the BF into getting me some bags of ice for my ice bath. That was harsh, but I think I managed about 8 minutes which I think did help my soreness today.

Other than that painful experience, we had a pretty good weekend! Saturday night we went to see I Love You Man (which was pretty funny, although a little long and awkward at parts), got our grocery shopping done for the week and yesterday afternoon (after I recovered a bit) we went to Hometeam BBQ with some great friends Sandy and Jason (hi guys!) to watch our HEELS demolish Oklahoma and win a trip to the FINAL FOUR!! We were pretty pumped about the win, so we decided to go check out the new FreshBerry downtown. It was delish! Here are some pics from the weekend for your veiewing pleasure:

Me and my college buddy Sandy sporting none other than Carolina Blue baby!

My boyfriend Matt and Sandy's boyfriend Jason making fun of us when we suggested they "get together for a picture." Gotta love Matt's huge silly smile!

Me and the boy :)


The reason we had to get to the movie theater early on Saturday, so Matt could play Galaga! He now holds the high score at the James Island Movie Theater if anyone would like to challenge his greatness :)

I don't know about you guys, but I am looking forward to a great week! I have today off running to recover, but here is my schedule for the rest of the week:

Tuesday: 3-5 miles plus sprints & calistenics
Wednesday: 8 miles easy
Thursday: 6 mile bridge & calistenics
Friday: Off
Saturday: 10k Cooper River Bridge Run (if I can register this week in time)
Sunday: 12-13 mile run