Track Workout & Speedy Splits!

I am happy to report, that this week is shaping up to be a good one for running. (At least for me.) I headed to the track last night in Mt. P to do some speedwork, and I warmed up with 3 miles. I really hate running anything more than a mile at a track, but it's just more convenient for me to run it there and then immediately jump into 100 m sprints.

I was looking over my Garmin Connect data for the last time I ran at the track, and it was a few weeks back on February 13th. Now, I seem to remember that week (my birthday week!) as me being pretty lazy running wise, so I am taking this with a grain of salt. BUT my 3 mile total for that day was 31 minutes even. (That's slow even for me.)

Last night, I ran it in 26:56 shaving over 4 minutes off my time!! I usually don't try to run this too quick as I know I will be doing sprints afterward, plus it's on a track, ugh. But I was feeling pretty good last night. I usually do run 3 milers pretty quickly, but my best time even in a 5k race is only 26:17!

After looking at those numbers, I am pretty excited to see how well I will run my 5k race on Saturday.

I do have a question for you guys though, I am planning on running my long run Sunday morning after the race on Saturday. I will probably aim for anything above 15 (17 would be ideal) and then next weekend, will probably back down to about 12 as Abby suggested, then back up again to 18 or 19 the next week.

I am not running today as I have a meeting I forgot about after work (ugh, messes up my plans!) So my question is, what should I run tomorrow? I will most likely do it in the morning so I will have plenty of recovery time for the race on Friday, but I also don't want to overdo it and be too tired by Sunday morning. Any suggestions would be great!

So just to review, this has been my week:
Saturday: 15 miles in way too long
Sunday: OFF
Monday: OFF
Tuesday: 6 miles in 56:17
Wednesday: 3 miles in 26:XX and 6 x 100m
Thursday: OFF, Yoga
Friday: ????
Saturday: 5k race, Yoga
Sunday: 15-17 miles

Thanks for helping! :)

March Goal #3: YOGA:
In other news, I mentioned that one of my March goals was to start doing yoga more frequently. This morning when I was reading through everyone's blogs I was happy to find that Lisa over at On the Run (she's the race director for the NC Marathon that I am training for on May 2nd) posted today about how starting yoga in this stage of training for a May marathon can really benefit you.

Here are a few snippets from her post:

Running, as (my yoga teacher) put it, makes you strong but tightens and shortens your muscles. Yoga stretches them, lengthens them.

One great warm-up: She (my yoga teacher) would bring a bag of tennis balls so we could sit first on one cheek, then the other, and roll around on the little ball. It got right to the spot where your overworked hamstring connects to the glute, or butt, muscles. My left one chronically tightens up on any run longer than six miles, and sitting on that ball gets right to the trouble and massages the knotted up stuff.

Makes sense, right? So why am I am not taking the time to do it? I have the YogaDownload.com Yoga for Runners free session, and I am definitely going to take the time to do it tonight.

I look forward to reading any suggestions about my run tomorrow! I am also glad that I have found a few local running bloggers this week as well. :)

I am now headed off to a meeting and then MEXI NIGHT with Matt!* Be jealous!

*Matt is the boyfriend, figured if I have posted his picture I might as well post his name too!

TGIF (and happy off day to me)

Well folks, it's been a tough running week. Monday I had a rough run over the bridge (shins are feeling much better today, thank you), Tuesday I was entirely too lazy to run (yet still managed to cook a fab dinner for the boo and I), and Wednesday evening I had a good run through the almost-dark almost-ghetto area of Chas, but managed to lose my left contact rendering me almost-blind for the runs entirety.

I was worried on Monday about my running this week because I had been out of town last Thursday-Sunday and had not done ANY exercising and had eaten way too much food (especially food that was not good for me). But now that it's Friday, I'm feeling pretty solid about my long run this weekend.

I did a short and sweet 4.5 miler last night on flat ground, and felt pretty good about it. Although lately I have been doing a great job of listening to my body and not starting out too fast, I was over-confident last night and started out thinking I could run the whole 4.5 at a 8:30 to 9 min pace--this was not to be.

After 1.5 miles I was like WHOA! slow down...which I did, and the rest of the run went smoothly. I don't have exact split times as my Garmin failed me yet again...or rather, I failed it by starting and then STOPPING it without realizing until about a mile in. But I'm going to assume I ran between 9:30 and 10:15 pace, not too bad.

On other fronts, the weekly budget of groceries has been going well! I only needed to stop by the Teet once to grab a few personal items, and I also picked up a cucumber (for Wednesday's night's salad, more below) and a package of fresh strawberries that were on sale (to add to my morning oatmeal). I also snagged a bunch of green bananas since I haven't been able to find an entire bunch of green ones in months! So all in all I would say that yes, we could survive on around $70 a week.

I haven't even eaten lunch out at all this week! It's amazing what you can do if you only prepare.

So although I am not going to post about everything I eat/make (it's just not my style, plus I am way to lazy to keep up with all that) I will share with you all a few things that I either managed to grab a pic of, or was particularly proud of.

Wednesday night was salad night (marinated portobello for me, marinated chicken breast for the BF) which I had prepared the night before, by prepare I mean I had started the toppers marinating in a balsamic/olive oil/garlic marinade. Boy was that worth it! They were delish.

I didn't get any pics of my salad but I did make enough portobello to use yesterday for a sandwich.

It was very good! I used:

• 2 slices of regular wheat bread, toasted
• 1 slice of provolone cheese
• A few slices of cucumber
• A few slices of tomato
• 2 marinated portobello mushroom caps, small ones
• Tribe roasted garlic hummus
• A small bit of low fat mayo
• A dash of sea salt

All in all a definite winner, I want to make these tasty fungi more often. :)

This weekend's running schedule:
I think I might switch it up and start running my long runs on Saturday's for a few reasons. 1) The actuaal marathon I am training for is on a Saturday, 2) This would make it much easier to go out Saurday night and not worry about drinking/coming in early and most importanly, 3) To get it OVER with!

So I am conflicted over what mileage I should run this weekend. My training schedule says 16 (my last long run was 15, two weekends ago), joyRuN's schedule that she so graciously shared for me says to do 11 this weekend and 17 next weekend, and I am thinking maybe I should try for at least 17? Input welcome! So I will be doing one of those distances, hopefully tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, I have a relatively simple weekend planned. Lots of running, lots of cleaning the apartment, and possibly a fun Charleston day with my boyfriend, complete with picinic! I have a few things on my list to (finally!) get done this weekend, now that we aren't traveling/hosting anyone from out of town:

1. Organize the area underneath our bathroom sink so more stuff stays there rather than on the counter.
   
2. Purchase and install two ceiling bike hooks so mine and the BF's bikes aren't taking up precious floor space anymore.
   
3. Finally buy some litter box liners. That thing smells rank.
4. Mop the kitchen floor!
5. Do laundry--wash all of my work pants. They seriously need it.
   
6. Buy som WIN! detergent for my stinky running clothes. I think everyone would appreciate that.
   

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Weekend Wrap-Up + Monday's Run + Groceries for a Week!

Whew! long title. Well it was a great weekend away, although there was a lot of driving involved (20 hours total) there was also a lot of fun had. We spent all day Friday getting the reception hall ready for Saturday (did I mention we were in town for my boyfriend's sister's wedding in which I was a bridesmaid and he was a groomsman?), then getting ready ourselves for rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, then going to said events, then...in my case...passing out.

Saturday was a lot of fun that involved; 1) Me sleeping in and thus not running at 7 am like I had planned, 2) Indulging in a breakfast cooked by the boy's grandparents and thinking I would run afterwards, 3) Obviously eating too much anyways 4) Leaving breakfast to learn that it was raining, which leads to 5) not running on the only day I would have had time and/or somewhere to run while we were away.

After breakfast Saturday, we showered and left for the church to get ready there, curling my hair alone took about 2 hours! As soon as we were all ready and looking purdy, we reported to the chapel for pictures.
The bride and groom decided to do these first, which apparently is the new thing to do, so that they wouldn't have to worry about them afterwards. (I.E. we all get to boozin' quicker...solid plan.)

KB waiting around for pictures to be over...nervously awaiting the wedding!

Meet the BF!

My boo also waiting for pics to be done...

Then there was the reception, lots of wine, dancing...it starts to get fuzzy there. Basically, we had a great time and were sad to leave on Sunday. Of course his family loaded us down with a cooler full of leftovers that we then ate-continuously-throughout the 10 hour drive home.

I am glad I did not step on that scale this morning.

...and back to the present:

Today was a very productive day at work after a good night's sleep last night, and I was feeling pretty good when I set out for my run. I had decided to shoot for 6 miles (over the bridge and back) but knew that I might be sluggish since I hadn't run since last Wednesday...yikes.

The first mile I felt pretty good, I was moving at a solid pace and reached the top of the bridge pretty quickly. I started to notice that my left shin was kind of bothering me, but at first just chalked this up to a few days off running and my muscles easing back into it.

But as I started descending down the bridge, it started to throb, and I stopped a few times to stretch thinking this would help, but it didn't. Finally at about the 2 mile mark, I decided to turn around hoping that I could get back without making it worse.

So....I ended up walking quite a bit of the 3rd mile, and not only was my left shin killing, but my right arch was also bothering me (as it has since I got my new shoes). I am about to ice my shins before bed and stretch really well, hopefully that will help. I really don't want this to set me back!

I am also going to either ditch my new shoes and go back to my trusty Asics, or attempt to return them...not sure if that will work.

In Other News....
I was very inspired by Bobbi's recent post, Healthy Eating on the Cheap to start planning our weekly meals out on Sunday and then grocery shopping according to (ONLY) what you need to make these meals (+ snacks, etc).

So I did that today, and here is our line-up for this week's dinners:

Monday: Shrimp Stir-Fry with Brown Rice
Tuesday: Quinoa and Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash
Wednesday: Salad night: KB to have marinated and grilled portobello mushrooms on hers, BF to have marinated and grilled chicken on his.
Thursday: Tilapia Puttanesca with Whole Wheat Angel Hair
Friday: Either more shrimp stir fry, or a risotto dish with sauteed shrimp

(**We have over 3 pounds of shrimp that we brought back from the wedding, we usually never buy shrimp)

We also used her tip to take along a calculator to add up our items as we added them to the cart. I thought the BF would think this was unecessary, but he really got into adding everything up and deciding what we really needed to throw in the buggy.

<--Sorry couldn't resist this one :) See the blushing bride in the background? So beautiful!

Some of the ingredients for our meals we already have on hand and didn't have to buy, like the pasta, Tilapia and all ingredients for that dish, shrimp, 2 bags of stir fry veggies, brown rice and risotto. We had to also buy some other things for snacks, breakfasts and lunch.

My breakfasts are usually either oatmeal or cereal, so I decided to go with oatmeal this week and bought some Quick Cooking Oats, as well as bananas that I can add in with cinnamon and Splenda. His breakfast is currenly nothing, but I am trying to move him in the direction of eating breakfast vs. not eating late night. He has a bag of Wal Mart brand Cheerio's he will eat for that.

My snacks are apples, hummus and celery, light popcorn and string cheese (which he also will eat). His snacks are Publix brand Oats and Honey granola bars and 100 Calorie Packs of Cheetos. He also sometimes eats apples and light yogurt (which we have some of those left from last week as well).

My lunches are kind of all over the place. I sometimes eat leftovers, bring a salad or some soup, or grab a salad from somewhere. I bought salad stuff for me this week, one Lean Cuisine (Butternut Squash Ravioli) and will probably end up making a natural PB and banana sandwich a few days. I was going to make a big pot of Lentil Soup like Bobbi suggested, but Publix only had this 15 bean soup that I have made before and it was nasty...so maybe next time once I have a recipe. His lunches will be PB and jelly sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, leftovers, or salads (he actually eats a lot of big salads).

So, we managed to get enough groceries for one week (hopefully) for a grand total of:

$68.54!!!

I couldn't believe that is all we spent. I think what helped, was planning by using things we already had. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but we usually just go buy a bunch of things regardless of (or without looking at) what we have at home. Which most of the time, ends up in wasted food, and nobody likes to waste food. :)

So hopefully, by this weekend we will still have food left and can say that we planned sufficiently. It was pretty fun to plan out all the dinners I will cook! This will also force me to actually cook them instead of being lazy after a hard run.

I'm going to try to run again after work tomorrow, for as long as I can, in hopes that I will feel back to my normal self. Fingers crossed!

And for your viewing pleasure, more pics from the wedding :)

<---The bridesmaids, pre-wedding

Me and the boy :)