May Day!

Happy May! With Summer closing in...FINALLY, I had decided I needed to do something to get back into shape. I signed up for Bobbi's Summer Shred and I'm getting to work today. The hard part is juggling runs in with the workouts. Oh, and staying organized enough to make it all happen. When trying to eat healthy & workout, it really takes some planning. I'm aiming to eat as clean as possible this month and I know I will have some challenges...running tonight with a friend who always brings post run beers, then meeting up with family this weekend where I know there will be beverages. While eating clean doesn't allow alcohol, I decided to make a few exceptions.

So May 1...

The Eats:

Breakfast: Green Monster Smoothie (basically your favorite milk base, spinach, & banana, add-in's are optional)

Mid-morning snack:

Almonds & raisins. Sugars can be high in dried fruit but they travel so easy. Will eat in moderation.

Lunch:

Turkey sandwich loaded with veggies on whole grain bread. One carrot & one celery stick for some crunch.Oh, and iced tea. I love me some iced tea.

The Workout:

Tonight I have plans to run & then do one of the Summer Shred workouts for some strength training.

I started this week dragging. As in I could crawl under my desk at any given moment and be sound asleep. I've fought through it and am finally getting some energy back. I blame my 4am wake up call last Sunday for Pat's marathon. But that's what supportive wives do.

This week's miles:

Monday - 3.5 miles at lunch

Tuesday - 5.75 miles with NRR

This is what is planned:

Wednesday - 5 miles

Thursday - 5 miles

Friday - off

Saturday - off

Sunday - 5K

A rainy day & a PR, but not mine

Today we had a 4am wake up call so we could head to Toledo for the Glass City Marathon. This was Pat's run, Brady & I were spectators and Pat's biggest fans. As soon as we got off the exit, it started drizzling, only to pick up as the day went on. Brady & I dropped Pat off at the start then headed to a beautiful metro park that was close to both mile 7 & 21.

Brady waiting for the runners

Here comes the leaders

Pat's rocking the run, he's the green blurr.

Someone is tired & wet!

Coming in for the finish, Pat blew past both of those guys!

Pat rocked the race with a PR and 8 minutes under his BQ time. I'm so proud of him!

In training...

Some friends of mine talked me into running my 13th marathon, Marine Corps, in October. Since I haven't been running much I decided I better start training now. I'm very loosely following Hal Higdon's Intermediate half marathon training plan, then I'll go into the Run Less, Run Faster marathon training plan. This week has been week 2 and I'm tired, very tired. I've learned that the key to getting through this is to plan ahead. I've done well this week with packing my lunches the night before as well as my running bag. It saves me having to do it in the morning and allows me a few more minutes of sleep. I have a friend who works near my work and we've been meeting at lunch for runs. This has been huge for me. I tend to get burnt out easily when all of my evenings are consumed with running. Running at lunch two days a week lets me have those evenings free. I feel more productive at work too. The downfall to it is having to look (and smell) like I didn't run. Baby wipes are my lifesaver.

This is what I've done so far:
Monday - 4 miles - ran at lunch
Tuesday - 5.5 miles, ran with my running club
Wednesday - 0, was supposed to run at lunch but it was raining, then snowing.
Thursday - 4 miles, 1 mile warm up then club 5k run

So I'm at 13.5 miles for the week so far.

This is what I'm hoping for:
Friday - 3.5 miles at lunch
Saturday - 6 miles
Sunday - off, cheering my husband on at the Toledo marathon

The plan has me running 18, but I should have 23 miles in for the week.

Around here...

After years of talking about it, I finally bought myself a new laptop. I got an HP Envy and I'm really excited to have a reliable computer at home again. I'm hoping it will make for more frequent blogging since life is constantly changing and there is so much I want to document.

In the meantime...
I got a new computer at work and I've been working out the kinks. It's always a challenge when you lose programs or documents and have to waste time searching for them. We up graded from Windows XP to Windows 7 so that takes time to learn too.

The kids are full swing into Spring sports. Jack made the Freshman baseball team and has 6 games a week (double headers 3 days a week). Grace is dancing one day a week and playing volleyball two days a week. She did great in her first ever Volleyball game after only two practices so I'm looking forward to seeing her progress over the season.

My bestie talked me into another marathon. I'll be running lucky #13 (Marine Corps) this October in DC. After a brutal winter, I'm thrilled that it's starting to be perfect running weather. Now if only I can keep progressing with the miles. It's been helping that I've been running at lunch.

Another one of my besties just got back from a trip to Hong Kong & Perth and I met her for brunch last Sunday to hear all about it. I love brunch with friends, especially when I haven't see them in a while.

Now that warmer weather is approaching the thought of summer vacations is coming to mind. Pat is running a relay up North in June that I will go to & then I'll be running GLR again this year. I'm hoping we can get a camping trip in there too.

Where is Spring!?!

It's been a while since my last post and at some point I'll explain why I wasn't blogging. Until then, it's Day 2 of Spring and those spring-like temps are no where to be found. It was snowing yesterday & again it's snowing today. And even worse, it was a bitter 16 out this morning. It's been a long, emotional Winter for me and I've been longing for warmer sunshiny weather to brighten things up. Even if just for a day.

Until then, I'm going to focus on happy things....

This guy always knows how to put a smile on my face.

While I haven't seen signs of flowers popping up outside, one of my besties sent me these beauties...

 And one of the newer loves of my life, my juicer. My favorite so far is apple, kale, celery, cucumber, & lemon. I also juiced some blood oranges last weekend that were so ridiculously good.

Road Trip: Petoskey, MI

What to pack:
A girlfriend of mine had given me a gift card to Trader Joes for my birthday to I took this opportunity to use it.
-bag of apples
-chili mango
-quinoa black bean tortilla chips
-whole wheat pita chips
-greek yogurt dip
-sea salt brownies
-red licorice

Then we also packed up some water, adult beverages, fancy flavored hot chocolate, and fixings for two turkey sandwich's (turkey, bread, lettuce, onion, cheese, mustard - all packed separately to prevent getting soggy).

Where to stay:
We stayed at the Apple Tree Inn. It was a perfect location, the Inn keepers were exceptionally nice, and the room was clean.

What to do:
Petoskey is an awesome place to vacation. We've now been several times and I think the winter in my favorite.
-Winter Park: they have a huge outdoor ice skating rink and skate rental is only $5. There is a nice building for warming up and concessions. They also have sledding here.
-Shopping: There were a lot of cute little shops to look through.
-Downhill skiing: Boyne Highlands, Nub's Nob, & Boyne Mountain are all within a 20 minute drive. We hit up Nub's Nob for night skiing and had a blast. I'm sure it was just the timing, but it almost seemed like we had the place to ourselves! We've both skied before and really enjoyed the black diamond runs at the front of the mountain.
-Running: We drove up to Harbor Springs and ran some of the roads there. The town is pretty empty in the winter and we hardly saw any cars. Afterwards a trip to the Stained Cup coffee shop was in order for some warm-up tea.
-Cross-country skiing: Same as downhill. We had a great experience at Boyne and I'd definitely go back. There are also places in town that rent the skis (and snowshoes!) so you could really do this just about any where!
-Dining: City Park Grill and Roast & Toast were my favorites. We'd been to Chandler before and while it was good, it's a little out of our budget comfort level.

Other things to note:
Hemingway spent a lot of time here. The Michigan Hemingway Society list 9 places that he used to frequent.
If you like beer, Beards Brewery was pretty impressive. They don't serve food (other than a few snacks that  you can buy), but you can bring in your own.

Happy Friday!

Why do short work weeks always seem the longest!?! Today especially seems to be dragging.

I have an ambitious weekend a head and I'm hoping I can find some time to relax too. I recently found a new gym that offers Real Ryder Spin classes and Bodypump. Tonight they happen to be back to back so I'm going to tackle both. Tomorrow morning will be hot yoga taught by one of my friends, then grocery shopping, then cleaning, then playing with my new juicer, then making up some chili. Sunday will be church, a workout, a chili cook off, & then a pizza birthday party for one of my step-sons (that still sounds weird to say, step-son). Whew, I'm tired already