Post-run yum yum!

I have been excited all day for the deliciousness I had planned as my post-run meal!  I've been reading that oats are a great food for both recovery and fuel and I read about a mixture that sounded scrumptious - oats, 1 mashed banana, soy milk, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a dollop of peanut butter!  It did not disappoint.  I think it will be even better when it gets cold outside and I can come in and fill myself full of warm, carby goodness!  I also had a nice glass of chocolate soy milk to top it off.

My run today was good on endurance, slower on speed.  I stayed around a 12:00-12:30 pace, but I ran 1.5 miles without any walk breaks!  The only reason I had to stop was because of shin pain.  Then I walked for .25 miles, ran another half mile, and walked the last .25.  I really wanted to run for another .25 so I could make it an even 3, but my legs were getting a little shaky and I didn't want to push it.

I waited until about 7:15 to run tonight and I really enjoyed it!  It was cooler (it's been in the 80s and humid here lately, not fun) and very peaceful feeling.  As it got a little darker, though, I did wish that I had some sort of head lamp or more reflective clothing.  Another thing to add to my running shopping list!

I felt great at the end of the run today!  I want to fix my legs so badly.  I just want to be able to keep running without this ridiculous pain!  I do think it's getting better, but I'm a very impatient person.  I've ordered something that I think might help, I'll post about that when it arrives.

I got to enjoy my post-run yum yum while icing my legs on the couch with my baby girl Honey snuggled up next to me.  Happy girl :)

Just let me lie on the floor for awhile...

Some days (like today), the only thing that gets me through my 90 minute yoga practice is the fact that at the end I get to do corpse pose for 1 glorious minute.  I realize that I don't have to go through 90 minutes of yoga in order to lie on the floor in silence for a minute--I could just go lie on the floor and skip all the rest.  But there's something about the state of mind I'm in after all that yoga...I feel stretched, strengthened, centered, and clean, and when I go into corpse pose I really feel like my entire body is immobile.  That minute is really my favorite part of the day.

Currently my yoga practice is YogaX from P90X.  I think it's a really great workout and introduction to yoga, but I'm hoping to broaden my horizons and try some new practices.  I'm considering getting some Rodney Yee DVDs.  I really like his demeanor and his voice is like cold water!

Namaste.

About Tina

Thus far, this blog has been all about running, but I'd like to start making it more about my life as well.  To begin, here's a little about me...

I'm 24 years old.  I graduated from college in 2 years, thanks to lots of AP credits and a heavy course load, with a BA in Political Science.  I then went straight through to law school, from which I graduated in the customary 3 years.  That was in 2010.  I passed the bar on the first try and have worked various temp jobs loosely tied to the legal field since then.  I married my favorite person in the world on August 21, 2010 and we live in my hometown.  My hubby is also a lawyer and owns a very successful firm here in our town with another attorney.  Those are the basics.

I don't want to be a lawyer.  I haven't had a real job since graduating from law school, largely due to the fact that I don't apply to 90% of the job postings I see because I can't bear the thought of actually doing the job.  My heart's just not in this career.  Currently I'm doing document review (I sit at a computer all day long sifting through company emails and classifying them as either "responsive" or "not responsive" - not exactly challenging or rewarding) and it pays well but the work is only fairly reliable and I have to drive an hour away each day.  I'm struggling to find something that sparks passion and inspiration in me, something I can also make a career out of.

I tend to flit all over the board career-wise.  At several points during the last year I've considered being an accountant, an elementary school teacher, a nurse, a photographer, a writer, and a college adviser.  Now I'm starting to consider some type of fitness career as well.  I'm drawn to creative careers, but I lack the courage to "put myself out there," as they say.  I'm hoping running will help me gain confidence so that I can find the career that's right for me and pursue it with all of my heart.

Inspired by Healthy Ashley, I've decided to make a list of 1-, 5-, and 10-year goals.  This is going to be a work in progress and will probably have several drafts before I'm satisfied.  But I've got to start somewhere, so here is are my "Working Goals."

1-Year Working Goals
Run a half-marathon in 2:30 or less
Make yoga a regular part of my life
Get pregnant with first child

5-Year Working Goals
Pay off student loans
Run a marathon

10-Year Working Goals
Have 3 children

Sad, right?  That's all I've got for now.  The only concrete goal I have is the number of kids I want to have!  Okay, I'm discouraging myself.  I need to give myself credit for trying, and hope that in the coming months I'll have a little more direction.  Goal: make more goals!

Meet Toby!

Today I went on my first (well, tried to, anyway) run with my new running buddy, Toby!  Here he is...

Yes, Toby is a Garmin Forerunner 305.  I've been wanting one for awhile now but kept telling myself I'd wait until I was committed to running before making that kind of investment.  One day this week, though, I was looking at it during my lunch break and decided to just go ahead and take the plunge!  I definitely wanted it before the Princess Half, and I knew if I got it earlier it would just help me with training.  I bought it for $138.88 from Amazon, which I thought was a great deal!  It arrived last night and I was like a kid on Christmas morning driving home from work yesterday...I just couldn't wait to open it up and start playing with it!

So today I decided to run with Toby after work.  It took no time at all for him to find the satellites, and was super accurate on distance readings.  Pace was pretty accurate too, but I think it takes him a little time to adjust and my pace is not very constant at this point.  When I was running, though, I managed to stay pretty steady around 10:30, with which I am very happy!  I had hardly run .2 miles, though, when the problems became apparent...

1. It was super humid outside today!  I'm really over the humidity and ready for crisp fall weather to settle in.  It will be so much better for my running!
2. My legs are very sore and tired from yoga.  I've done yoga twice this week and really worked my legs hard, in addition to my run earlier in the week.  They just didn't have it in them today.
3. It has rained for the last several days and although the sun did come out earlier this afternoon, the nature trail was pretty water logged so I was running on the street.  I don't enjoy it as much--less shade, harder on the legs, people looking at me--and my poor little legs just couldn't take it.
4. For some inexplicable reason, I was doing all my running in uphill areas of the neighborhood.  I know that this will come to my advantage in my race because the route is almost totally flat, but I wasn't feeling the hills today.
4. I am EXHAUSTED.  This has been my first full week back at work, getting up at 6am every day, and I'm just ready to crash.  I don't think I had the energy for a run on hard pavement in high humidity.

Excited as I was about Toby, I headed for home after just a mile, of which I only ran .75.  I was drenched in sweat from the humidity, even though I hadn't gotten my heart rate up super high.  So now I'm crashed on the couch, planning on letting my husband go to dinner with his brother, and I'm just going to go to sleep.

I'm getting a mani/pedi with my mom tomorrow at 10am, but I plan to get up at least by 8 and go for another run with Toby!  And I don't plan to let him down this time!

Today's run: I am Super Girl, and I'm here to save the world!

I may not have super powers, and today's run was not super compared to all the amazing athletes in the world, but it was super for me!  I haven't been blogging about my runs lately because they've been so discouraging and I haven't had any progress.  My leg issues have continued to plague me, so this week I resolved to do some ankle strengthening exercises and some yoga to really stretch out my muscles.  My ankle exercises take about 10 minutes a day, and I did YogaX last night, so today I felt ready for a run!

The C25K program has not been working great for me the past few weeks so I have decided, as I often do when plans don't pan out the way I want them to, to go rogue.  I'm going to start focusing on a distance of 3 miles because that's the base for all of the half marathon training programs out there.  Today I decided to run on the nature trail since it's soft surface and I planned on doing 3 laps.  Well, I did just that and it went great!  I also tried to run faster than I have been--no little shuffly-shuffle.  I ran the first mile without stopping in 10:30.  Then I did a 2:30 walk break, followed by a 5-minute run, 5-minute walk break, then finished up with two more 5-minute runs with a 3-minute walk in between.  That's...10:30-2:30-5-5-5-3-5.  And my time for 3 miles was 34:26!  Even better than my goal time of 36:00!   I'm very happy with it!

Hopefully I've found a mix of yoga/strengthening/running that will help me actually start to see progress.  Also, I'll be running with a buddy starting on Thursday...more about that later this week! :)

Miles logged: 3.75

Update

I've been slacking on posts lately, but here is what's been going on with me... I completed my first 20 minute nonstop run on the nature trail last week, and it went really well! I stayed really slow at a 12:00 pace and didn't start getting out of breath until I had 3 minutes to go. My legs were heavy, but they didn't cramp or seize up like they have been. But getting in the first workout of Week 6 of C25K, which is 5-3-8-3-5, has been an enormous challenge. My legs have seized up right about the end of the first 5 minute segment every time on the treadmill. I finally completed the workout last night on the streets of my neighborhood, with only slight leg cramping. It was a tough run though, and I was disappointed by that. But I'm not running today or tomorrow, with plans to run Saturday morning before we go to the Carolina game. Hopefully that will give my legs a nice rest so I can make a stronger showing in my next workout.

In other news, I officially signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!!!!!! I'm so excited! My mom is going with me and we're going to Harry Potter World the Thursday and Friday before the race. My half training program officially starts the first week of October, right when I finish C25K! So I'm very driven to complete all of my workouts now, because I'm genuinely training.

I feel like I could be making serious progress if it weren't for my leg issues. They really get me down sometimes, but I'm stretching and icing and hopefully soon I'll build up enough strength that they're not a problem anymore.

Today's Run: Back to the real world

Today was my first run after a 9-day vacation, but I'm proud to say that I worked out while on vacation, too!  I'm very happy that exercising is becoming part of my regular vacation routine.  Because of the horrible condition my legs were in the week before I left, I started out on the elliptical.  I did the elliptical twice, and then decided to give the treadmill a try.  My legs still hurt, but nothing close to the incident I had at the Y last week, so I pushed through.  I ran in 5- and 3-minute increments, with 3-minute walks in between.  I also did the bike one day because I was bored with the elliptical.

We got home yesterday, but this evening was my first opportunity to work out so I headed to the Y to get on the treadmill.  It was a bit rainy, so I decided not to brave the muddy nature trail.  I was aiming for the first work out in Week 5 of C25K, which is 5-minute runs, buffered by 3-minute walks.  At first, I was in some pain, so after 2 of the runs I walked for 10 minutes.  I felt much better after walking it out, and then I was able to do the full work out with no extra breaks.

The legs were hurting a good bit, so I came home and stretched really well and then iced.  I even did some weightlifting this evening, yay!  But I think part of the problem on the run was that I started out at 5.5mph, which I think is just a bit much for my weak little legs.  5mph feels like a good speed, so I'll keep it there until I build up some more muscle.

I'm going back to work tomorrow at a place where I have an hour long commute.  But I'm going to keep up my commitment to working out and run when I get home!

Miles logged: 4.0