Weekly Workout Recap (8/6-8/11)- Marathon Training Week 11

"There are times when you run a marathon and you wonder, Why am I doing this? But you take a drink of water, and around the next bend, you get your wind back, remember the finish line, and keep going."

-Steve Jobs

Weekly Workout Recap (8/6-8/11)- Marathon Training Week 11:
(Reminder: My actual workouts in RED, what my plan called for in BLUE)
Monday, 8.6- Spinning & 45 minutes elliptical & 4.5 mile walk with the Hubs {Spinning & 5 miles}
Tuesday, 8.7- 7 miles & 10 min. elliptical & 6.1 miles {Signature Strength}
Wednesday, 8.8- Spinning & 2.5 miles & 5.85 miles {Spinning & 5 miles}
Thursday, 8.9- Signature Strength & 2.25 miles {9 miles}
Friday, 8.20- 60 min elliptical {Rest}
Saturday, 8.11- 19 mile LR & 3 mile walk {19 mile LR}
Sunday, 8.12- 8 mile hike with the Hubs {60 minutes cross training}

Totals for Week 11:
43 Miles Run {38 Miles}
2 Spinning Classes {2 Spinning Classes}
1 Signature Strength Classes {1 Signature Strength Class}
115 Minutes on Elliptical {60 Minutes Cross Training}
7.5 Miles Walked {None on Plan}
8 Miles Hiked {None on Plan}
0 Rest Day {1 Rest Day}

Week 11 of 19. In the books. Done. Finished.

How I Felt:

Body: Picked two-a-days back up in a big way with 5:30am & lunchtime workouts everyday Monday-Wednesday. Intense. Definitely felt it in my muscles by the end of the week. Legs tired, but not too sore, throughout the week. Saturday's LR and Sunday's hike trashed the legs and they're SCREAMING today.  

Mental: Felt good! First week in 2 weeks to get back to two-a-days. Boosts my confidence and makes me feel like I'm putting in 100% effort. It honestly wasn't even that hard to talk myself into getting up and hitting the gym at 5am because I knew I was doing my body and training good. Felt mentally weak going into the LR, but after the first few miles felt surprising great and mentally was totally in the game.

Energy Level: Soaring! Sleeping better than I have recently (maybe b/c the workouts picked back up and I'm exhausted by 9pm each night?). Feels great!

Hunger: Not as hungry as usual, minus Sunday. Sunday I had the post-long-run hunnnnnnger and it was not messing around! But, other than that, I felt pretty normal all week.

Days That Drag

I honestly cannot believe this day isn't over yet. Ever have one of those days that just draaaags on and on and on and on for no real reason? Like, nothing notably good or bad or even just notable, for that matter, happens but the day feels like it's taking forever to pass? That's how I feel right now. Maybe it's just the late-afternoon Friday drag. I'll blame it on that.

Things I'm looking forward to this weekend:

1. Dinner date with the Hubs tonight. Over the past few weeks with all the move drama and business we haven't really gotten to spend much romantic-type time together. We've spent tons of time together... just the cleaning, moving, rearranging, more cleaning, more moving, errands, more cleaning kinda time. So, tonight we decided to go on a date night. Just us. We're starting with dinner at our favorite Italian place (Hey, gotta carb load!! It's totally legit!) and then gonna redbox it (aka- I'll fall asleep about 5 minutes into the movie).

(source)

2. Long Run on Saturday! 19 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It boggles my mind that I could even think I'll run that far, let alone ACTUALLY run that far. Even though I KNOW I ran 18 less than a week ago, it still just cannot compute in my brain. I mean-- 19 miles?!?!?!? That's only ONE MILE short of TWENTY MILES (spelling the number out makes it seem bigger and more substantial, right??). It seems completely crazy. Madness. Utter madness. I'm stoked to see if I can actually do it. And, it doesn't hurt that the weather forecast looks pretty freaking bad ass for tomorrow morning.

60*s, parly cloudy, and no rain?? I'll take it!

3. The Hubs and I have two of our very good friends coming into town Saturday for dinner. YAY! I'm crazy and irrationally nervous for them to see our new house (because I'm crazy... we've been over this, right?), but beyond excited to get to see them and their adorable baby.

4. Sunday = Rest Day! Usually I take Friday's as rest day, but I decided to get my 60-minute cross training (elliptical) in today so I can take Sunday as a total rest day. I'm going to try to convince the Hubs to go on an epic walk with me Sunday, so it might not be the most "restful"... but, I know during Saturday's long run, the idea of not having to "workout" the next day will feel amazing!

5. Finishing my e-book. Yup, still reading it. Still obsessed with it. Can't put it down.

6. A friends baby shower for her one year old Saturday afternoon. Sure, it's not exactly the party that will make the 19-miler fly by from pre-party excitement, but the baby is crazy cute and I'm definitely looking forward to it.



I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now. Here's hoping all these things and more are just as amazing as I'm hoping they will be this weekend. And, here's definitely hoping this weekend hurries up and gets here already!!!!

The Color Run - Race Recap

A few months ago a very good friend of mine (who I stole basically ALL the pics in this post from... thanks, L!!) sent an email asking a group of friends if we all wanted to run the Grand Rapids Color Run 5K together. Never one to turn down a race, I was all in. Since it was a big group of friends running it, the Hubs said he was in too.

Several months later, and the race was here!

The Hubs almoooost bailed, due to the EARLY 5am Sunday wake up call (Grand Rapids is 2 hours away and we had to drive in that morning). But, I agreed to drive so he just slept the whole way there.

2 hours later, and we were there! Parking was pretty easy, despite lots of road closures. We got to downtown GR at about 7:25am and the race started at 8. We had to pay to park, but had no problem finding a spot about 1/2 mile from the start line. A quick change into our official race apparel at the car and we were off to the sea of white start line.

We got to the start line right at 8am when the first heat was leaving. The race officially started at 8am, but started the massive crowd in heats to ensure everyone could get properly color-ized. It worked out for us because we didn't have to rush and could leisurely get to the start. So, while we did get there right at 8, we probably crossed the start line around 8:15-8:20.

Me and the girls, pre-race

We didn't mind waiting... they had a DJ blaring music and we had time for pre-color pics! (That's me on the right w/ the SUPER COOL head sweat band. SUPER COOL.)

So, after waiting around a bit, we were off and ready to be covered in color!

The purple color station! PURPLE EVERY WHERE!!!

And covered in color we were! We "ran" through several (maybe 5 or 6?) of color stations along the route and through each volunteers threw color all over us!









L and I mid run, clearly after the orange color station!

The color was a power. It didn't taste great and got in my eyes, but didn't hurt. And, you were in and out of the "color zone" before you knew it. We definitely ran as close to the volunteers as we could get, so we could get as color-filled as possible.

We ran/walked the course (which was fine w/ me as my legs were TRASHED after the 21-miler the day before) and were done in about 45 minutes, I'd say... it was un-timed, as it was meant to be a FUN experience, rather than a RACE. We did run part of it, but I think it would have been physically impossible to run this whole race with there being SO MANY PEOPLE and the amount of just crazy fun nonsense that was going on. According to their website:

"The Color Run is a one of a kind experience that is less about speed and more about enjoying a color crazy day with your friends and family."

I've never seen so many people SMILING, LAUGHING, and JOKING AROUND during a race before. And ya know what... it was freaking awesome. It reminded me that-- HELLO!-- running is FUN! Sure, it can be hard, but sometimes it really should just be about having fun. And, for me-- with this race, it was. Pure and utter (colorful) fun.

Our whole running group, post-race

The Hubs and I, post-race, in matching sweat bands. BE JEALOUS.

After the race, we enjoyed the crazy color-throwing after party for a few minutes before literally being leaf-blowed by volunteers to get some of the excess/loose color off. We then met up with another friend (the wife of one of the guys who ran with us and their brand new baby girl!) for a delicious friend-filled breakfast before trekking back home. Oh yeah... and remember when the Hubs slept the whole way there at 5am? He definitely paid me back by letting me sleep the whole way home! Perfect mid-day nap!

Other thoughts? The race was a little pricey for a 5K, but it was beyond worth it. Maybe that's just because my friends are JUST THAT AWESOME... but, I think it's at least a little to do with the great race atmosphere and the color-craziness. I'd definitely suggest doing it. If you do it, remember to bring a towel to sit on in the car, a water-proof camera (thanks again, L!!), and safety pins (they gave us bibs, but no safety pins! Wtf?!?!). Oh, and don't worry-- the color washes off your skin in 1 shower. It even MOSTLY came out of the shirts!

So, if the Color Run ever comes to a city near yours, I'd go for it. Go with a group of friends. Get crazy. Enjoy the colorful memories.

21 miles and the Beach

Sorry for such the delay! My goodness!! I can't believe it's already TUESDAY! I woke up yesterday when the alarm started yelling and thought "NOOO! It's Friday, my rest day! I don't have to get up early!!". Yeaaaaah. Yesterday was MONDAY. You know it's a danger situation when you confuse a MONDAY for a FRIDAY. Danger indeed.
Well, I did end up dragging my confused booty outta bed and got to the gym for the 5:30am Spinning class. I decided to forgo my usual quick treadmill run for the day in favor of giving my legs a day off running. At lunch yesterday I did 45 minutes on the elliptical while reading my latest obsession.

I was on my local public library's wait list (Btw, they have wait lists for e-books? Who knew?!?) forever and finally got it last week and started it yesterday and now I can't put it down. Obsessed.

Today I got to the gym ready for the 5:30am Signature Strength class, but sadly it was cancelled. My gym's kinda a hot mess right now... there was an ownership change and a lot of the instructors apparently hate the gym and a bunch are quitting like crazy. My favorite spinning instructor had her last class Monday and the Signature Strength instructor just quit, too. UGH! Hopefully they find someone good to replace them soon.

Anyway-- since Signature Strength was a no-go, I jumped on a treadmill while watching Felicity on Netflix Instant and easily knocked out 7 miles in 1:04:37 for a 9:13 pace! It actually felt pretty easy, which was surprising. Apparently me and the ol' mill are in a love phase of our love/hate relationship. I'll take it! I ended my morning workout with 10 minutes on the elliptical before a quick shower and a mad dash to work.

I'm hoping to get some more miles in at lunch today too. 5ish is the goal, to make it an easy double digit mid-week run day.

Backing up to the weekend, I did my LONGEST RUN TO DATE! 18.15 crazy miles. Just reading that kinda boggles my mind. 18 miles?!?!? That's SO far. I can't believe I ran it. Seriously.

So, I started my Saturday morning after a less than sound sleep with a 5:45am alarm. I had to carefully plan my run, since I was finish the run at a local 10K race, which started at 8:30am. I was doing the race with some work people, so I had to be there by 8:10am. Luckily the race is in running distance from my house, so the plan was to get up and get out the door by 6am, get 10 miles in, stop back at my house to grab my bib, then head over to the start line while adding another 1.8 miles, then do the 6.2 race to total 18 for the run. Yeaaaah, didn't happen quite so smoothly.

My alarm went off at 5:45 and it was still crazy dark out. Didn't help that I checked out the weather on my phone to see this forecast pre-6AM.

75* before 6am?!?!? TOO HOT. I know it wasn't even that hot. I get it. But, with a high of 90+ and that kinda heat before the sun was even up, I wasn't too optimistic about it not quickly turning into a sauna-esque run. (Spoiler: I wasn't wrong.)

I did drag myself outta bed, kicking and screaming. I slowly got ready, ate an english muffin with PB, and grabbed my gear.

I got out the door by about 6:15am, a solid 15 minutes later than my carefully constructed schedule allowed. Normally, 15 minutes isn't that big of a deal, but with running, it's a bigger deal. 15 minutes is over a mile! And, when there's a race start line to get to, there's a much stricter schedule. Ugh.

So, the entire first 10 miles I was stressing about if I was going to be late. Must have worked a bit because despite the temps steadily rising to 80*, I managed to hold a solid 9:45 aveage pace the entire first 10 miles. Solid. I'll take it.

I got to my house at 8am 10.5 miles in (I also managed to over estimate distance... crap!) feeling fatigued and hot, but not too shabby. I grabbed some Gu Chomps, my bib, and chugged half a diet pepsi (weird and NOT a good workout beverage, I know) and was back out the door in under 2 minutes.

Even with the lighting fast transition time, I was still behind and late. Luckily, I go to the race with like 2 minutes to spare. Just enough time to steal a race bottle of water and snap a pic with my co-workers before taking off.

(I cropped the co-workers out of this pic for their privacy)

Side note: When other co-workers saw this pic Monday morning, they thought it was a post-race pic, based solely on my sweatiness level. Classic, Meagan. Gotta say... I was proud.

So, after 12 miles, I crossed the start line for another 6.2. They honestly weren't that bad. Kinda un-noteworthy, as a matter of fact. Nothing special. I plowed through them. I was tired and it was HOT. Like, 85* hot. But, I felt strong. I managed to hold onto a 9:40ish pace the whole race.

18.15 miles (the course was short! That almost never happens!) in 2:56:16 for a 9:40 average pace. My paces stayed pretty consistent. My slowest mile was a 9:50 and my fastest was a 9:32.

It was nice to have the race at the end of such a long run. It made it mentally more bareable because I really just broke it down and thought "OK, I have a 10 mile run" then "Just to the start line" then "OK-- just finish up this race. That's all you have to do." Plus, it really helped to have water stations and people cheering and all the fun stuff that goes along with a race.

And, just like that- I was done with my longest run. Evvvver. 18.15 miles. DONE!

The Hubs picked me up at the finish line so I wouldn't have to walk home.

An ice bath, chocolate milk, and a shower later and we were on the road to my in-laws for a day at the beach with some extended family in town.

At that leads us to run #2 for the day. Yes, you read right. Another run. See, the Hubs cousin is a HUGE workout fanatic. Like, way more than me. Anwyay, he wanted to get a little cardio in, so he asked if I wanted to go for a run on the beach. I'm never one to turn down a run (I don't think I know how), so I was in. 3 miles on the beach. Barefoot. On sand. Dodging little kids and beer bottles and rocks. I was OK til about mile 2 and then I was SPENT. My legs started screaming and I slowed waaaay down. My legs were beyond done and angry with me by mile 3, so we stopped there. It was fun to run together, but man-- the barefoot beach thing was brutal. Not to mention the whole tired post-long-run legs thing.

So, after we left the beach, I wrapped up the day in compression socks eating my weight in homemade cookies. Excellent. After 21.15 miles, I feel like that was the only way the day could end really. I mean, come on.

Sadly, it didn't QUITE end there. See, the Hubs and I drove allllll the way home (about 45 minutes) and right when we were pulling off the highway I remembered I forgot my purse at the in-laws. DOH! So, we had to turn around and go back. We didn't end up getting back home for good til after 10. With a 5am Sunday wake up call and another 2-hour drive on the horizon for Sunday, that wasn't such a great thing. I crashed immediately upon walking in the door.

Recap on Sunday's 5K Color Run coming soon! :)

Weekly Workout Recap (7/30-8/4)- Marathon Training Week 10

"I will go through a lot of pain to beat someone. If there's pride and ego on the line, if I'm desperate, then I'm willing to go to a place where it hurts a lot more."

-Shalane Flanagan, U.S. Marathoner

Weekly Workout Recap (7/30-8/4)- Marathon Training Week 10:
(Reminder: My actual workouts in RED, what my plan called for in BLUE)
Monday, 7.30- 30 minutes elliptical & 5.25 mile walk with the Hubs {Spinning & 5 miles}
Tuesday, 7.31- 7 miles {Signature Strength}
Wednesday, 8.1- Spinning & 2.5 miles & 6.75 miles {Spinning & 5 miles}
Thursday, 8.2- 6.5 miles {8 miles}
Friday, 8.3- Rest {Rest}
Saturday, 8.4- 18.15 mile LR {18 mile LR}
Sunday, 8.5- 3.1 miles (The Color Run 5K) {60 minutes cross training}

Totals for Week 10:
46.75 Miles Run {36 Miles}
1 Spinning Classes {2 Spinning Classes}
0 Signature Strength Classes {1 Signature Strength Class}
0 Minutes on Elliptical {60 Minutes Cross Training}
5.25 Miles Walked {None on Plan}
1 Rest Day {1 Rest Day}

Week 10 of 19 DONE. Wowza! Only NINE weeks to go! We're getting closer and closer. SINGLE DIGITS! Crazy. Absolutely crazy.

How I Felt:

Body: I felt good going into my long run Satuday. Maybe it was the whole being done moving thing? Maybe it was no 2-a-days. Whatever it was, I felt more rested than normal. By Saturday night I was a level of exhausted I haven't felt in a while. Wowza. Every inch of my body was sore and tired. Sunday's 5am alarm clock, 2 hour drive, and 5K were ROUGH. Not a great way to start this week, but what can you do.

Mental: Nothing really to note.

Energy Level: Nothing really to note.

Hunger: Not as hungry as usual, minus Sunday. Sunday I had the post-long-run hunnnnnnger and it was not messing around! But, other than that, I felt pretty normal all week.

Name of the Day!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!! 

(source)

I could not be more excited for this week to be OVER. Tomorrow marks 1 week since the big move and it's SLOWLY but surely starting to feel more like home. Last night the Hubs and I got some artwork up and we ordered a sofa table online which already shipped today! Have I mentioned how much I love Target? A lot. We're still in the process of getting curtains and I think once we get those and finish putting art work up, I'll finally start feeling more settled.

Yesterday was a fun day... I started the day off with 6.5 miles on the good ol' treadmill at the gym in 61:01:26 for a 9:27 average pace.

Not  my fastest, but definitely not my slowest. Thanks to the iPad, Netflix Instant, and season 1 of Felicity I wasn't even that bored. The treadmill and I have a love/hate relationship. After the run I did 10 minutes on the elliptical as a "cool down" before rushing to get ready and get to work on time. Hey... 10 more minutes of a workout far trumps actually getting to work looking presentable, right? :)

After work the Hubs and I cashed in a gift card that's been burning a hole in my wallet for months for Bonefish Grill. We shared the Bang, Bang Shrimp (DUH! If you ever go to Bonefish you HAVE to get the Bang, Bang Shrimp. HAVE TO. Trust me. You'll thank me.) and then I got the dumplings as my entree.

Mmm. So good. I love those dumplings. I had 2 left over, so the Hubs has a nice treat for a snack next week. Speaking of the Hubs, he got this amazing chicken with spinach and goat cheese dish. YUM. Everything at Bonefish is just delicious. Pricey, but delicious. Thanks for the giftcard, mother in law! You're the best!

You'd think after stuffing myself silly at Bonefish, I'd be good on the food-front. Well, first of all, if you really thought that clearly you don't know me. I'm never "good" on the food front. There's always, always, always room for (you guessed it) fro yo. Now, the Hubs and I have made a pact to limit our fro yo consumption to once during the week (usually Monday's during our weekly walk) and once on the weekend. Well, clearly we already got it once on Monday, buuuuut-- yesterday was different. It was special.

See! It was special! I HAD THE NAME OF THE DAY (spelling doesn't count)!! Mine was FREE. We HAD to go. I mean, c'mon. HAD TO. Plus, we decided we'd just count it as our weekend trip, since we'll be out and about all weekend anyway. Win, win.

We wrapped the night up with laundry and the Olympics. Oh! And, we put some pictures/artwork up around our house. YAY!

See those things on the walls? PICTURES! ON THE WALLS! YAY! And, that hamper there was a pretty monumental find, too. It's hiding this ugly mark on the wall. Do you  know how freaking hard it is to find a hamper that's over 30" tall? Freaking HARD. I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond twice, Target (where they had one, but it was like $80! WHAT?!?!), Wal-Mart, Burlington, Marshals, Meijer, 3 Goodwill's... phew! It was like the never ending hunt. I finally got this from a BBB on the otherside of town after finding it online. Thanks to a handy 20% coupon, this sucker was only like $30, plus we had store credit left over from the wedding. SCORE.

So, it was a pretty fun, low-key, low-cost night. Gift cards, name of the day, and store credit? I'll take it!

Today's a rest day (yay!). I've got a busy day at work to get through before going grocery shopping and baking cookies tonight. Tomorrow we're going to the in-laws to hang with some out-of-town relatives visiting for the day. There maybe some beach action involved. There will definitely be some cookie action involved.

Oh, and you know... before all that fun family/beach/cookie action I just have a super short 18 mile run to get in. NO. BIG. DEAL. I signed up for a 10K tomorrow (kinda spaced on it! Just realized-- CRAP! That's TOMORROW!), so I'm gonna get up crazy early to get 12 in BEFORE the 10K. AWESOME. Hey... at least it'll make those last 6 go by faster. And, the race is in walking distance from our house! Even EASIER. Can't beat that. It'll be my longest run evvvvver. We'll see if I survive. Oh, and then I have that whole Color Fun 5K Run thing Sunday. WTF was I thinking with 2 races back to back AND doing a 5K the day after a 18-miler? Not quite sure. Sometimes I'm not so smart. Whatever. It'll be a fun, sweat-filled weekend. MY FAVORITE! 

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!!

Are you organized? Or lazy?

I saw this today and couldn't help but giggle. I have no idea where I saw it, but I copied it and then several hours later when I was working on a work email I hit Ctrl+V, thinking I had copied something work related to paste into the email, this is what pasted instead. Awesome. Pure awesome.

Sometimes, life sucks. Things go wrong. Things aren't what we expect them to be. People piss you off. Things break. You lose stuff. Shit happens. 

But, sometimes little, insignificant things can brighten your entire day too. If you let them.

Today, I choose the later. Today, this billboard brightened my day and made me laugh. Out loud. Too loud. And, I'm completely OK with that and completely grateful for it.

And, for the record, yes. I am organized. Painfully so sometimes. And, yes-- it is because I am simply too lazy to look for things.

Well played, billboard. Well played. And, hey while I'm talking to some random billboard, thanks for the laughs.