Rough Week

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just felt off? Like completely not yourself? That was me this week. I know it was due to stress, but I haven't had a week like this in a long time. I'm 3 weeks away from graduating from business school, and I'm still trying to work out my future plans. I'm definitely close but it's a huge source of stress for me to be moving from my current apartment in May and not having a place to go afterwards. I have no lease signed and I have no clue when I'll start my job. Pretty much, my life is a huge question mark to me right now. All the uncertainty just killed me this week! I'm sure it didn't help that I fell and bruised my knee to the point that I couldn't run. The marathon training has been the only regular thing that I'm completely in control of in this whole time of turmoil!

So overall, I fell completely off the wagon! I hardly worked out, I ate crap (at least by my standards), and I felt LAZY. It was awful! I forgot what it was like to let stress get the best of me. I guess I have made some strides over the last two years. I've been great at keeping my eating on track and always getting my workouts done no matter how busy or stressed I was. This week was different. Ugh!

At least I've recognized what went on and I'm moving forward. I ran on Wednesday and that went well, so I'm happy about that. I'm getting closer to having things settled for the summer, so that helped as well. I even made it to the gym yesterday to do some cardio on the elliptical and some upper body lifting. I have an 8 mile run to get in this weekend, and then it is only one week till the race. I'm really excited for it to be here!

I can't wait to plan my future workouts post-marathon! Anyone have some suggestions of workout plans for me to try? I can always re-do P90X and Insanity!

Have a healthy weekend! Don't let stress get the best of you, like me! :)

Minor Injury

Oh no! I fell on my way to school in the rain wearing slippery shoes. My fault! Unfortunately it left me with a severely bruised knee, which then led to some weirdness in some of my muscles because I was compensating for the knee by using other muscles. I took a few days off, and today I ran for about 20 minutes in the morning. I'm actually going to run tonight with some friends too. We're doing what we now call the Hofbrauhaus 10K where we run 6 miles to the bar and have a beer for happy hour. Then we get rides home from friends who meet us there! Fun fun!



I know, not very weight conscious of me, but there's a reason I workout. Well, several reasons why I workout, beer being one of them. :) I'm human. Thank God!

The Power of Massage

Yesterday I went for an hour long massage to work out the kinks from my 20 miler. I actually felt great before I went in, but I felt so much better when I left! I had no idea how tight my muscles really were until they were massaged back into being relaxed. My legs felt great when I was done! I scheduled a massage for the week after the marathon so I can speed my recovery. I definitely believe in the power of massage for pain relief. I used to go monthly when I was working in an office all day, and it was the only thing that helped my back pain.

Today's run is an interval run with a warmup, cool down, and 6 miles of interval repeats. I'm going to do that in about an hour. I actually made it to the gym yesterday too, which was great! I love my Beachbody workouts, but sometimes, it just feels great to be in a gym! I did a full body circuit that I made up in my head. It was:

1. Chest Press
2. Dumbbell Bent Over Row
3. Bicep Curls
4. Side Shoulder Raise
5. Skull Crushers (for the triceps)
6. Dead Lifts
7. Squats (with dumb bells)
8. V-sit crunches with my hands in the air (not holding myself up)
9. Mason Twists

I did 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise and used a weight that left me feeling tired after each set. I started with a 10 minute jog for a warmup, and then I walked home as my cool down. I did some yoga poses for my stretches at the end. It was a total of 600 calories in an hour!

I'm also super excited about the dinner I planned for tonight. I love Mexican food, so I decided to make some healthy pork carnitas in my slow cooker. I found a recipe on www.allrecipes.com. Here's the link. I also plan to make my own guacamole. I bought some multi grain tortilla chips (which I will limit to one serving!), and I have high fiber tortillas as well. I'm going to skip the cheese and sour cream and make myself a healthy carnitas burrito. Yum!

Have a healthy day!

20 Mile Run!!!

So yesterday was my last long run before the big race on May 2. I went out to a trail with a friend who is also training for the marathon. The weather was beautiful! We left around 8:15 and it was probably in the upper 40's with a clear, crisp sunny sky. I had to wear pants, which I wasn't actually expecting, but I have some favorite running pants, so no big deal. We started out at a parking lot at mile marker 4 on the trail. We ran down to mile 10, and then we turned around and came back to the car. I had a Gu at my 6th mile, and then again at mile 12. We had to refill our water bottles at mile 12 as well, so I got in a little stretch.

The second portion of the run was from mile 4 down to the beginning of the trail and back. I would say the first 3 miles of that felt great! So basically, I ran 15 miles feeling like a million bucks! Okay, maybe not quite a million, but definitely feeling good! I was getting some blisters on the insides of both of my feet, but I actually need those so they'll callous over by race day. Once we were getting up to mile 16, I was feeling tired! My friend was super supportive though, and we cheered each other on through the rest of the run! At mile 17, we even started Jersey fist pumping to get some energy back in us! We finished up mile 20 in 3 hours and 37-ish minutes, which is 3 minutes faster than I had figure for us. We spent a good amount of time stretching and then we headed home!

I have to admit that we decided to go for a celebratory beer afterwards. Could not resist! We were all sweaty and gross but who cares??? If anyone asked, I could say, "I JUST RAN 20 MILES!!!" Woo hoo! I had a yummy steak dinner later on with a grilled filet mignon, a baked potato, and green beans and tomatoes with garlic. Love it!

And the best part about all this is that I feel great today! I can tell I ran 20 miles yesterday but I am not hurt and I am not really all that sore! I'll warm myself up a bit later and get in some good stretching so I'm not sore tomorrow either. Now I get to taper off and reduce my mileage over the next 3 weeks so I'm rested and ready to go!

Hope you had a healthy weekend!

Today's Triumph

I'm wearing my skinny jeans! Not only am I wearing them (from 2002, and I don't care if they look old school), but they fit better than when I bought them! Woo hoo! Thank you Beachbody!

Celebrate a triumph of your own today! Maybe you got in 8 hours of sleep last night, worked out before work, or conquered the shoulder stand in yoga (like my fabulous mother and sister did last week). Whatever it is that you accomplished, celebrate it!

Getting Used to the Heat

It's been a beautiful weather week in Pittsburgh! Warm, sunny, breezy... but my body is just not used to it! I went out yesterday and attempted a 5 mile tempo run at 1:30 in the afternoon. Ummm, I know better than that. It was not fun! I was super sweaty and I didn't have any water. My body is just not used to 85 degree weather! I wasn't feeling well, so I decided it was better to cut it short than to push it and make myself feel sick. I "finished" it up this morning by doing a fast 3 mile run. It was still warm (already 65 degrees at 7:30), but it felt much better!

Tomorrow I plan to do some type of strength training and then it's the big 20 miler on Saturday. OMG! I think I'll do P90X Arms... I miss my P90X workouts. I'll be happy when the marathon is over so I can get back to having a variety of workouts. I get bored too easily to run all the time!

Weekend Update

I was home for the weekend celebrating Easter with my family, so I took a little hiatus from the blog. I did not, however, take a hiatus from my health. :) On Friday, I did not workout because I was driving 5 hours to get to my parents' house. On Saturday, I got in a long run of 13 miles in (what to me felt like) serious heat. It was challenging! I burned 3000 calories though! I sweat so much that I actually had salt crystals forming on the edges of my face. EWWW! The cool part about the run was that my dad came with me and did some jogging of his own. Love working out with family! I saw lots of families working out together at the park too, and that just made me so happy! I was so happy to see parents and children out enjoying the beautiful weather with each other while they exercised!

Food went really well, especially for a holiday! My family has been eating healthier this year, and so we had quite a healthy weekend for food! On Friday night, we had arctic char with roasted brussels sprouts, asparagus, and couscous. On Saturday, we did an Easter dinner which was a bit more than usual. The good thing is that we skipped the dinner rolls and we had baked potatoes instead of mashed. Yum! All in all, food was great and I'm super proud of my family for their healthy eating and working out. My mom and sister are both really into yoga now, which is great!

This week is the last heavy workout week before the marathon for me. I run 20 miles on Saturday... Eeek! Wish me luck!