Friday 5: All About Me!

So the Friday Five with Mar, Courtney, and Cynthia is growing.  In the past few months there have been a ton of incredible blogs linking up, so the wonderful leaders of the link up decided we should do a get to know ya post.  Not gonna lie, I love reading random facts about people.  I'll try to not talk about Maddux my entire post but ya know...


1. I LOVE coffee.  But I have cut back.  A lot.  While there are still times I drink multiple cups, I usually stick to just one in the mornings now.  I'm embarrassed to say that I have a new obsession with the newest line of Starbucks mugs.  The You Were Here series just speaks to me.  The size is perfect for my morning coffee.  While I can't say I'm on a mission to collect them all, if I happen to see one and it's cute, it's coming home.

2. Helping animals makes me a happy girl.  I'm a shelter dog girl all the way and as I've mentioned before, I'm so glad that Lucky Dog Animal Rescue makes it so simple to volunteer.  In college I actually interned as a marketing assistant for the local SPCA and I thought for a while that was the direction my career would go in.  Funny how life can work out ;-)

3. I'm obsessed with Mary Kay Andrews  books.  Annnnnd Joanne Fluke books.  Yes, they are both pretty "fluffy" as far as literature goes, but MKA writes a lot about places I used to live growing up, so it's fun knowing what street she is talking about and if you try any of the recipes from Joanne's books you won't be disappointed.  What can I say, I don't always appreciate having to search for deeper messages in my books.  Sometimes (most of the time) I just want a fun story.

New one just in time for summer!
Source.

4. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.  My dad and I used to try a new breakfast place after races and it's a tradition I try to keep up.  After Shamrock I made sure to go to one of our favorite pancake places!

Pocahontas Pancakes, you make a mean breakfast.

5. There is a new J&A race coming up.  They are announcing all of the details in a couple of weeks, but I am beyond excited because it's during my birthday weekend!  J&A is my FAVORITE and having my birthday race done by them makes me crazy happy!  Possibly PR for my birthday?  Yes, please!

Tell me a random fact about YOU!  Or link up to the Friday Five :-)  Happy weekend, friends!

Week 2 Recap

My crazy summer has officially started!  Although running has to be a little more flexible, I can't complain.  Spending time with my family and friends always makes me a happy girl!  

Wednesday: 4 miles on the treadmill listening to my beloved Wait! Wait! plus one mile in my neighborhood.

Saturday: 5 miles at the park before heading out for bachelorette fun!

Yep, she sips on shots. :-)

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday: 1 mile for the Runner's World Running Streak

Total Weekly Mileage: 15

Total Training Mileage: 33

I missed one of my runs (womp, womp), but I'm not feeling too bad about it because the running streak made sure I hit my mileage for the week even if the remaining 5 miles weren't all done at once.  Plus, spending time with some good girl friends is a pretty dang good excuse to miss a run.

I wore a race shirt.  That counts as a run, right?

My college roomie lives super close to where we went to school, so we had fun exploring campus and all the changes that have happened since we've left.  I hardly recognized it!  They have done some major construction and pretty much every building I had classes in is gone.

My love for my roomie will never change!

 

We'll see how week 3 of training will go!  Luckily there's not too much pressure at this point since the first few weeks are all about easing back into a regular routine.  I just don't want to start by making too many excuses!

Have you been back to your old campus lately?  How are the training plans coming??

5 Ways I've Embraced the Morning Run

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up with Mar, Courtney, and Cynthia for the Friday Five!  Make sure to give them (and all the incredible blogs linking up!) some love!

Lately I've been getting up (in my opinion) insanely early to get my running streak mile in.  If you know me, you know that I am not a morning runner.  Yes, I get up fairly early on the weekends because I hate wasting a day, but I rarely am out the door for a run before 10am.  As much as I've dreaded hearing the alarm, I've actually come to not mind the runs so much.  Here are my five ways I've come to at least get my butt out the door!

1.  It's only a mile.  Some mornings it feels like it takes a long time, but in reality it doesn't.

2. It is SO nice to get it out of the way.  On Wednesday I had to run 5 miles and there was no way I was getting up in the 4 o clock hour.  When I left work I was so sad when I remembered my run wasn't done yet.  I've loved having the evenings free.

3. It has been really hot this week.  Running when it's 65 or 70 degrees has been much more appealing than the 90-100 we've had this week.

4. It helps wake me up.  Not gonna lie, I'm on autopilot in the mornings.  I literally lay out all my clothes (socks already apart, shoes out, Garmin where it picks up satellites quickly) put them on and get out the door.  Yeah, it probably isn't the best strategy to give your body minimal time to warm up, but sometimes I have to get out the door before my body realizes what's happening.  By the time my run is over I'm wide awake and ready to conquer the day.

5. This face.  Guys, Maddux is the sweetest dog ever.  He stays in bed when I get up to run, but when I get back that sweet boy is waiting at the door for me.  Seriously, the best way to start the day.

Ok, this picture is of him at class, but how cute is he in it?!

How do you get out the door for a run?  I find the best way is to not let myself make excuses and go.

Round 2: Week 1

Well, I can officially check off week 1 of the new training plan!  This week was pretty easy.  Because my plan is so long, it gradually eases you into running.  It's definitely good for people like me who tend to let a little too much time slip by between races and get a little more than out of shape.  

I had to shuffle around some of my running last week because it was just one of those weeks and I ended up getting the "long run" (which in this week's case, was actually shorter than the other two runs) done earlier in the week.  

Tuesday: 4 miles

I did three miles on the treadmill (it was really hot after work!) and then one outside so that my Runner's World Running Streak mile would count.  It's kind of annoying that runs you log manually don't show up, but my Garmin is getting a lot of use lately!  Plus, I think it's good for me to practice running outside so that I can get used to the heat a little bit.

Luckily I have a ton of Wait, Wait! podcasts saved up so these runs will be more bearable!

Saturday: 5 miles

My cousin came down from Baltimore for a girls' night and we ran together Saturday morning.  It was SO nice to have a running buddy!  The miles flew by and it was absolutely gorgeous weather for a run.  My plan only called for 45 minutes of running, but we were so close to 5 miles that we decided just to keep going a few extra minutes.  The OCD in me really shines when it comes to my mileage.

Beer drinkers by night, runners by day.

Sunday: 5 miles

I was really spoiled this weekend and had another running buddy!  My nice friend and I headed out to Gravelly Point for a run.  It was my first time running there (I had been wanting to for ages!) and I loved it!  It was more crowded than my usual routes, but it was so cool getting to see the monuments.  I swear it never gets old.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I just ran a mile to keep up the streak.  Most of them were AM miles!  Who would have thought I would be able to motivate myself so many days in a week to get my butt out of bed.  Luckily, my work schedule is about to shift so my alarm won't have to be set quite so early in the coming weeks, but I will say it's been nice getting them out of the way!

Total Plan Miles: 18.13

All of my runs felt relatively good (minus those pesky morning runs), but I'm so ready for it so start feeling a little easier!  Fingers crossed I bounce back into shape sooner than later!

Only 18 weeks to go!

What races are on your calendar?  How did your training week go?

5 Updates on my Training Plan

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up again with Cynthia, Mar, and Courtney (who is getting married this weekend!  Make sure to stop by and show her some love!).  I started training for my next half marathon this week!  I have so many thoughts going on right now about my running plan, so for this edition of the Friday Five I'm going to try to organize them a little bit.

1. It's 19 weeks long.  My race seems so incredibly far away, but I know from experience that it works. I'm in pretty rough shape right now, so it will be good to slowly build back up.

2. The running streak is going on during it.  Part of me worries that I'm going to get burnt out on running before my plan even gets started.  A bigger part of me loves a good challenge and I know I would be disappointed in myself if I stopped now.

3.  Summer running.  Eek.  I'm a little concerned about getting long runs done in the summer heat.  This means some early rising is in my future or lots of quality treadmill time.  I need to get used to running with my Camelbak so I can survive these super sweaty runs.

4. I'm not gunning for a PR.  At least not in the half.  Ok, if it happens I won't be upset, but since my race is part of a challenge, I'm going to try for a PR in the 5k portion.  I haven't PRed in a 5k in YEARS.  I haven't been in decent shape for one in a long time, so I'm hoping that since I'll be all half marathon ready that the 5k will be cake.

5. Being flexible may be harder than I thought.  This summer is going to be crazy (fun) busy.  I'm really excited about all my plans, but am going to have to be really diligent about getting my runs in.  I know I can do it, and I've tried to map out the dates that will be tough on my training plan so we shall see how it goes!

Can't wait for summer concerts!

Anybody else training for a race?  (Any other ridiculously long plans?!)  If you have hints for getting used to running with a Camelbak I would LOVE to know how you did it!

Happy weekend!!

Friday 5: This Summer I Will...

Happy Friday!  I'm linking up with Mar, Cynthia, and Courtney again today.  The theme this Friday is
"This summer I will...."  I'm looking forward to reading what other people are up to so I can get ideas on what to do when I am bumming around this summer!  I already shared a few of my running goals, but I'm excited for a lot of other things this summer, too!

This summer I will....

1.  Play with my family!  I have so many family visits this summer and I cannot wait!

Does it get any better than this?

2. Check out a few more places from our Doggin' Maryland book.  One of my new year's resolutions was to visit 5 new places, and so far we're only at 1!  My sweet boy is on some hip supplements now, so I'm hoping we can take lots of long walks.  There are several trails I've been meaning to check out for a while now and this summer it's going to happen.

3.  Foam roll.  I need to do this more.  Maddux really hates it though and he even attacked it once.

Who me?

4.  Join a running club!  I'm really excited about this one.  A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my debate on whether I wanted to join a running club or a training program, and I think the running club is the way to go this year.  I just have way too many days out of town to justify spending big bucks on a training program.

5.  Relax.  I am more than looking forward to reading and lounging by the pool.

What are your summer plans? Big and exciting or low key and relaxing?  Both sound good to me!

Happy National Running Day!

I hope everyone got in a nice, sweaty run to celebrate!  I ran 3 miles and was a sweaty beast after, but I think I'm slowly getting back into shape!  That's good news because next week I start training for my next half marathon!

In honor of National Running Day I thought I'd share a few of my running goals for summer.

1. Run in 5 states other than my own.  This should be easy because I have lots of travel planned for this summer.  All I need to do is get my running shoes on and make it out the door!

I have a visit to my sister planned and I cannot wait!

2. Finish the Runner's World Summer Run Streak.  I've done it two years in a row, so I know I can do it.  It always feels good to finish it!

3. Check off all my training plan runs.  The beautiful thing about summer is that I get to be a little more flexible with my schedule.  I'm so excited about my next half.  I'm doing my first challenge (5k on Saturday and half on Sunday) and I'm looking forward to having something to work towards again.

What are your summer running goals?  Any races coming up?  Mine's not until October, but it never hurts to start early!

**Make sure to check out the National Running Day Link Up with Olive to Run! :-)  So many people celebrating!