Strength Training and Running

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 6:30 and my room was FREEZING. I slipped my hands out of the covers just enough to grab my phone and check the weather. It was 36 degrees! I had laid out my "winter" running clothes the night before but I had never run in temps that low. After checking the weather for the rest of the day I decided to try and go later in the day when it was supposed to be warmer. 

I am so thankful that I did. By 2:00 it was sunny and a lot warmer at almost 60 degrees. 

I set my alerts on my Garmin watch to a 6/2 split and headed out the door. I was extremely sore thanks to Jillian and my extra squats on my Runtastic app so I wasn't sure how good the run would be. 

I checked my watch a mile into the run and realized I had just finished my fasted mile at 11:03

That really gave me a boost and I continued to push through the run. 

At mile 2 my legs felt like jello and I really just wanted to stop but I thought about the fastest mile I had just completed and knew I could possibly get a PR on my 5K. So I dug deep for the extra motivation and pushed through.

Once I pushed through those thoughts of quitting the rest of the run was a breeze. Mind over matter people. Mind over matter. 

I couldn't remember the exact time of my PR 5k but when I finished and looked at my watch I knew I was close

Turns out my PR is 35:17 so I was just 50 seconds away. I'm pretty pumped about that considering my current PR of 35:17 was with me running the 5K without stopping and my time Saturday of 36:07 was doing a 6/2 split. 

So I would have to say that all the strength training is paying off. 

Today I did day 4 of Ripped in 30 for the #4MChallenge

Anybody else having Jillian dreams/nightmares? No? 

I am so ready for week 2 and something new. 

I finished up my workout with my runtastic apps

88 Sit-Ups

76 Squats  

54 Push-Ups

How's everybody doing on the #4MChallenge? 

{Insert Clever Title Here}

So sometimes I do this weird thing when I'm really tired and I'm curious to find out if I'm alone in this weirdness. 

I vividly remember this happening often when my kids were babies waking up all hours of the night to eat. 

See, apparently when I'm really tired and know I need to get up I just dream that I'm doing the thing(s) I need to be doing. 

Like for example when Becca was a baby and I'd hear her start to wake up I would dream that I got up, fixed her a bottle, and fed her. As you can imagine this was very confusing when she started crying louder and really woke me up and I thought I had just gotten done feeding her. It would always take me a moment to sort out if I had actually fed her or if it was a dream. 

I say all that to say that I had a wonderful "dream workout" this morning from about 5:00-5:45. What a disappointment it was when I woke up at 5:45 and realized I still needed to get up and work out. Disappointment or not I did get up and did day 2 of the 30 Day Shred. 

Oh Jillian

I unfortunately didn't get all of my  morning routine accomplished because 

1. obviously I overslept and 

2. Josh's work truck wouldn't start this morning and with his coming in and out of the house he woke up Eli earlier than normal. 

So a few of my morning activities have been pushed back to Eli's nap time, which will be happening earlier today thanks to his early rising. 

In other news; I am officially signed up for the St. Jude Half Marathon! 

and it's just 219 days away!!!

I signed up to be a "Hero" which means I've committed to raising $500. So be looking for the information on how to donate soon. 

I am running for "Team Ingram". My good friend Allie ran for the team last year (and will be running for them again this year) and had nothing but praise for this family. I couldn't not sign up to run with this family/team after all the great things she said about them. 

More info on that soon. 

Sara and I ran together last night and she totally rocked the 3/2 split with minimal complaining :)  

I also pushed her the furthest distance since starting our training together. We've been running about 2.5 miles doing a 3/3 split. I knew she was ready for more and she totally busted it out, and much to her disbelief she lived to tell about it. 

We have a 4 mile race coming up in 3 weeks so we've really got to step up our game. 

Y'all! I. Am. Sore. 

I see a HOT bath in my future. :)

I'm Back and with Challenges!

So I know its been FOR-EVA since I last posted. Sorry about that for those that care. I haven't been sitting on my rump though. I have been running!! My goal is to run 10 races in 2013 the last being the St. Jude Half Marathon. Eeeek! I've already registered for 5 of the races and have 5 others picked out I just haven't made the commitment to them yet. 

I have an awesome running partner. We try to meet 3x a weeks but it doesn't always happen. She is going to run the 1/2 with me so we are training together and I LOVE it. Running it so much more enjoyable with a partner. 

This is one of my most recent runs. My pace has slowed considerably because of my "break" during the winter. So I basically started from scratch (boo). 

When I'm not running with Sara I try to do 6/2 splits running at about a 11:00 to 12:00 minute mile. 

Sara is a newbie but it doing AMAZING! We started a few weeks ago doing a 2/3 split and are currently doing a 3/3 split and are running anywhere from a 11:30 to a 13:00 minute mile. She doesn't know it yet but our run tonight we are going to a 3/2 split. :) 

I am joining some blogging friends and am doing the #4MChallenge 

I already had a few Jillian DVD's on hand and decided to go with the 30 Day Shred. I have serious Love/Hate relationship with ole Jill. I usually "mute" her just so I can make it through the workout. :) 

How my morning started

*side note* Are you following me on Instagram?  You should (ebob86)

I also recently found these apps by "Runtastic* 

PushUps Pro

SitUps Pro

and Squats Pro

Yes I had to pay for them but for me that helps hold me accountable. The Squats Pro is pretty "easy" because I could probably knock out 100 squats in my sleep. But having the goals and training schedule is great for my "type A" personality and knowing that I have a schedule to follow means I'll actually do it. My goal for the PushUps Pro is to get through the training with the modified push-ups (on my knees) and then when I finish go back through it again doing  "real" Push-Ups.

You should check out the apps! They have free ones too.

I also just started an accountability group for morning quiet times called "Hello Mornings". My morning quiet times have been nonexistent recently. I don't really have a good excuse just laziness really. I love having accountability wether it be in exercise or my time with God. If you have an area in your life that you feel you are failing try getting someone with the sames goals to help hold you accountable. It will make a huge difference. 

An email sent by "hello mornings" this morning really convicted me.....

"Rising early to meet with the Lord — not because I am rested, but because He is worthy — is an expression of trust that He will supply what I need to get through my day." 

Such powerful words. Am I trusting God to supply what I need to get through the day? 

I did today :) Now to make it my habit again.

So will you join me in any of these challenges? How about just one? Let me know if you are! I'd love to be an accountability for you :)

Check out the hashtag on instagram #4MChallenge for motivation with the Jillian workouts. Or #operationredbikini 

You can go to Hellomornings dot org for more information about the accountability for your morning quiet times. 

I'm also linking up with Megan over at SkinnyMeg for Workout Wednesday 

So go check that out for motivation and ideas for workouts!

Have a great Wednesday!

Lazy lazy lazy

I saw this quote yesterday and it hit me in the gut like a ton of bricks.

I have been super lazy lately. I haven't run since the Color Run and only worked out twice last week and haven't worked out at all this week. I could probably throw out a few excuses but basically it just comes down to pure laziness. *Fat girl habits die hard*

So it looks like I'll be starting the Shred over and I've got to figure out a good time for me to run.

 Because I can't run at 5:00am anymore (check out that story HERE) I'm having a hard time finding a good time to go. I just do better when I start my day with my run, its easier to go when everybody is still asleep and no one is upset that I'm leaving. Nothing makes it harder to leave than your 5 year old hanging on your leg screaming "Please, don't leave me Mommy!" She even hid all my running shoes once so I wouldn't leave. 

I've noticed I've been really grumpy since I stopped working out and that should be reason enough to get me back at it. Running is really my therapy, my time to be alone and just be me. I need that back and I have to find a designated time to do it each day. 

So all you Ladies out there: How do you do it? How do you make time for your workout and not feel guilty about leaving your family? I really struggle with that because I feel like my husband walks in the door from work and I'm running out to do my workout and taking away from our "Family Time" 

So lets hear it ladies, what's your perfect workout time? 

{The Happiest 5K On the Planet}

The Color Run was exactly what they said it would be

{The Happiest 5K On The Planet}

What's kind of funny though is that is wasn't actually a 5K. It ended up being like 2.67. I don't know who dropped the ball on that one.....
But it was definitely focused around fun and people of all different ages, shapes, sizes, and athletic abilities showed up for this colorful race. I use the word race lightly because nothing was timed and most people would come to dead stop in the color sections, some even got down and rolled on the ground.
 Some of the people working the color stations were pretty hard core. My friend Ashley took some pink paint in the mouth and I got nailed in the forehead with orange.
 It was super fun though and I got to hang out with some of my best friends. I even ran into my best friend from high-school!

Enough talk enjoy the pictures!

Some of the {Color Me Fab} Team

Waiting to Start

Headed towards the Orange Cloud

After I took some orange to the face

So Colorful

Best friend from high-school

 Such a fun race

      

    Allie and me rocking our shirts

Look how white our teeth look!

getting doughnuts

aren't we cute?

Pre-shower Lovely-ness

pre-shower praying it would all come off

If you want to check out some other blogs about the Color Run you can check out.....

Allie @ In Stride

Dawn @ A Day in the Life of Dawn

Candace @ The Jerkins

Emily @ The Story of (US)ssery

Not all of them have updated about the Color Run yet but I know they will (No pressure ladies) : )

I'm still waiting on a few pictures from some friends so I'll post them on another post after I get them.

Have a great Monday!!

Post of Randomness

Yesterday my normal morning workout did not happen. Eli woke up at 5:30 to eat and did not want to go back to sleep after.  Normally I would be able to sit him on the floor with some toys or something and he'd be content but yesterday he was really fussy so I texted my Aunt and told her we were going to have to try for later.

I spent the day doing laundry, going through the kids clothes that didn't fit and organizing everybody's drawers. I saw this pin a while back

(Her drawers not mine)

And decided to try it for ours. I really wish I had gotten a before and after pic of ours because it made a huge difference. Becca is really bad about looking for a certain shirt and pulling everything out of her drawer to find it. Now when she opens her drawer she can see every shirt she owns. This is one of those things that you think "Why didn't I think of that?"

I went to Sports Authority to pick up my race packet for the Color Run. I am so excited about this race!

After I got the kids in the bed I decided to do Day 4 of the Shred. Only 4 days and I am so sick of doing the same thing. I'm thinking about Monday starting level 2 because Level 1 is feeling too easy in most of it. I will admit there are a few things that I'm not able to do the full 30 seconds without a break but it's not enough for me to want to continue with Level 1. I really want a challenge and to see results fast.
Even with it feeling easy I'm still getting a good workout

My view after finishing Day 4

After I finished Day 4 I decided to jump on the 'mil for a bit. I set my timer for 10 minutes and covered everything on the screen but the arrows to control the speed. I set the speed a little bit faster than what felt comfortable and was just going to run until the timer went off. I had to bump the speed down a few times but I don't know what I had it set on. The last few minutes all I wanted to do was stop but I wouldn't let myself and waited for the 10 minutes to be up.

.87 in 10:00

Not as fast as I felt like I was going. But it was still faster than my normal pace. I walked the rest of the mile for my cool down.


I just finished Day 5 of the Shred and found it to be much more enjoyable like this...

Sorry Jillian :)

I can't wait to update about the Color Run! Have great weekend everyone!

The Shred

Well I started the Shred this week and let me just say "uuuugh"

It's not so much the workout, it's actually not bad but the repetitiveness of it and the fact that I'm stuck doing the same workout for 10 days (x3) really annoys me. BUT I know it's working because I am sore so I'm just going to suck it up and power through it.

So I took before pictures and had intentions of posting those pics today but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The more I look at them the more ashamed I got. I hope at the end of the 30 days when my body looks different I will have the courage to post the pics. I will however as a small consolation post my stats 

Day 1

Weight: 165.8 

(yes I've gained weight sense my last weigh-in which proves that just running isn't working for me in the weight loss department)

Waist: 38 1/2''

Chest: 39''

Hips: 41''

Thighs: 23''

Arms: 12''

Very yucky stats there. It just makes me sick.

Come on Jillian don't let me down.....

In other news: I ran tonight with Ashley and Marie again at the Germantown Greenway. Ashley totally tricked me in to running 4.25 tonight too (she's sneaky)! I love running with them. It pushes me farther and faster than my head is telling me I can do.

 I have got to do a better job of running during the week without them though because they are about to bump their "short" runs to 5 miles and if I'm going to continue running with them once a week I'm going to have to up my game.

The Color Run is this Saturday and I am super pumped! Allie and I got together Saturday to make our shirts and I was so excited about how they turned out. I had my shirt sitting on the counter drying and one of the kids knocked over a cup of water on the shirt and the marker I used to trace the letters started to bleed. I freaked out at first and then decided I should just spray the entire shirt with water.

It's not exactly what I was going for but I think it turned out pretty cool. 

Tomorrow is Day 3 of the Shred and I hope to get in a short run Thursday before the Color Run Saturday. 

First and Milestones

First I want to say "Thank You" to everyone that commented, texted, messaged, emailed, and called about the incident yesterday. It means a lot to me to know you all care. You can click HERE to see the post if you missed it.

One of the text I got was from my good friend Ashley and she wanted me to come run with her and Marie at the Germantown Greenway. After making sure they wouldn't be leaving me in their dust I accepted the invitation. I had never run on the Greenway and was super excited to try it out. I was also excited to be running with friends.
The Greenway was BEAUTIFUL and the run was so enjoyable with all the great scenery

Ashley and Marie are training for the St. Jude half marathon and they run in splits. 8 Minutes Running/ 2 Minutes walking and were going to do 4 miles. Ashley told me before hand that they normally run at an 11:30 minute pace so even though it was at a faster pace than I normally do and half a mile longer than I'd ever gone I felt because they were doing splits I'd be able to keep up.
Ashley has a Garmin watch so she was keeping up with our time, distance, and pace and I never looked at my phone. We started off and I could tell I was going at a faster pace than I normally do and was glad we were going to get a two minute walk break. Ashley did a great job of coaching me through and keeping me encouraged.
We made it to the half way point of two miles and turned around and Ashley reminded me that I had to go four miles now. So it was up to me to decided if I'd be walking back by myself or if I'd continue at their pace. I'm not going to lie, a lot of my motivation was from not wanting to be left alone on the Greenway.
A small portion of the route we were on had some pretty intense hills and on the way back we hit them right around the time we should have started a walk break but decided to power through them so we could enjoy our walk on the other side of the hills. It wasn't easy but we dominated those hills...

Some time on the way back Ashley informed Marie and I that we had been running well under the 11:30 pace and even had one under 11:00. I was shocked that I had been able to stick with them. I was so excited when we finished! 4 miles completed and at my fastest running pace!

Here is what our splits looked like...

So all in all a great run! First time on the Greenway, Great friends, Furthest distance, and Fastest pace. Great end to a day that started off so bad

It'll never happen to me....

"It'll never happen to me" Isn't that what everyone thinks when it comes to bad things? The stories you hear about people being abducted, raped, killed everyone always says it'll never happen to me. I've always thought that, and as of right now it still hasn't...
But I had a scary encounter just now. I should be out on my run right now but I made a quick return home. Let me go back a few weeks to tell you about something that happened during one of my early morning runs before I tell you this story

A few weeks ago I was running at 5:00am in my neighborhood. I normally don't see many cars at that time but this morning there was this car driving around the neighborhood. The first time he went by me I didn't really give it a second thought at the time but looking back I realize now he was going pretty slow. A couple minutes later he was driving by again coming the opposite direction. Again slow and this time I noticed he had his windows down. I believe he drove by me three or four more times that morning. Luckily I was on the end of my run and close to home.
I didn't give it too much thought that day. It freaked me out a little but I tried to blow it off...

Today I headed out for my run I hadn't been walking for 2 minutes (still in my warm up) when I saw the same car. My street is a very small circle that has maybe 20-25 houses on it. I was coming out one end of the circle when I saw him speed into the other end of the circle. I crossed the main street and went down a street that is a dead end to finish my warm up. The street is clearly marked "NO OUTLET" and it has no sidewalks.
God is good because about that time my husband called to ask what time Eli should be eating so I was on my phone when he came flying up behind me. I had to scoot over he was so close and he had the entire street to himself. Because it was a dead end he had to turn around and come back he flew by me again. After he went by me that time I turned around to get off the dead end street and back onto the main street. I was curious to see if he'd come by again after seeing me on my phone and sure enough he had turned around at another street and came by me again. I was freaked out before but now I was in a complete panic. After he had gone by me and was out of sight I ran as fast as I could back home. Praise the Lord all this happened while I was still near the house. I made sure he wasn't around before going to my house because the last thing I wanted was for him to know where I lived.
The first thing Josh asked when I walked in the door was probably what all of you are thinking "Did you get the license plate number?" and unfortunately I did not.

So obviously I don't know what this guys intentions were but I wasn't going to stick around to find out. But it does look like I will no longer be running alone in the mornings.

So ladies, be safe out there!

Goodbye funk

Well I did it :) I got up and ran yesterday morning and ran 3.5 miles. It wasn't easy and I went at my old slow pace of 12:30 but I did it.
At 2.70 miles I got this weird pain in my chest. The only way I know how to describe it is growing pains. Anybody remember getting growing pains?? I do and they hurt. It was right behind my (sorry if there are any gentleman reading this) right breast. Goodness, could you imagine me getting growing pains at 26. And in my breast of all places. Not that I think it was growing pains but if it was I hope my left breast decides to play along too so I'm not lopsided :)
Anywho I've gotten off topic. I walked for about 2 minutes until the pain went away and the finished the run and stopped at 3.5 miles and walked the rest of the way home.
It felt good to get back at it and with the Color Run less than two weeks away its a good thing I'm back at it.

Me with some yummy chocolate milk after my run.

And because I feel like I only post yucky pictures of myself after a run I thought I post some from yesterday before church