Hi, all! Whoops… haven’t blogged since Friday. Lately, the weekends have been filled with house projects that take up the time I’d usually sit on the couch and blog. So, please accept my apologies and know I was thinking of you and taking LOTS of pictures for you in the meantime.
This week was fantastic running-wise. Here’s how it looked:
- Monday - Rest day! Still recovering from my weekend bout with the flu.
- Tuesday - Ran 4 miles in the a.m., taught K4 Cardio in the p.m.
- Wednesday - Taught 2 CoreX classes before work
- Thursday - Ran 4 miles in the a.m., one hour of Yoga at home with Shiva Rea after work
- Friday - Taught K4 TRX in the a.m., 4 miles of treadmill speedwork in the p.m.
- Saturday - Taught one KBox class, followed by a circuit class
- Sunday - Ran 15 miles!
Since Valentine’s Day fell on a Thursday, I had Faith Club, so we decided to celebrate on Friday night. Presents were a no-go this year, since we just wrote a pretty substantial check for this new thing called a house. But Cupid did bring us season one of Modern Family–the only season not available on Hulu Plus. (We’re already more than halfway through!) However, while I was teaching on Thursday morning right before lunch, I heard a grown-up male voice say “Happy Valentine’s Day!” and I jumped! It was my first-graders’ favorite person–Mr. Hearn! He brought me beautiful flowers and a teddy bear–and yes, I had a first-grader take my picture.
Gifts from Mr. Hearn
Holidays are so much fun in first grade.
Valentine’s Mailboxes we made on Thursday
Valentine’s Puppy Chow I made for my students. Yum!
B and I don’t eat out often, and when we do it’s usually to Ingredient for dinner or to First Watch for breakfast. But we’ve both been wanting to try Coal Vines down on the Plaza, so I made reservations for February 15th.
Coal Vines on the Plaza
I bought some new pants just for the occasion. Hot pink skinny jeans, to be exact. I didn’t get a very good picture of them (or of anything that evening), so this one will have to do:
I forgot to bring a real camera with me that night, so you’ll have to deal with a few iPhone pictures. (Okay, let’s be honest–I have been l-a-z-y about taking real pictures recently.)
We got to sit next to the kitchen. Right after I took the picture, this guy turned and through some flour at me (it hit the window!).
Salad with pear, gorgonzola, and candied pecans. YUM!
Our pizza–half margherita and half fontina
They bring this cute little trio of spices to the table. Delicious!
Wish we’d brought a real camera, as this is the best picture of the two of us from the night 
The evening was made especially magical when we were sitting, enjoying a post-pizza drink, and we looked out the window to see that it was snowing. There are few places in Kansas City that are more gorgeous than the Plaza–especially when you’re with your Valentine, drinking wine, and it snows.
Saturday was pretty much spent doing house stuff. That night, I baby-sat, which was great preparation for my long run the next morning–no temptation to drink too many glasses of wine like I did the weekend before!
Which brings us to Sunday… the day of the Long Run. If you read Monday’s Mile Marker post, you know that my 14-miler last week was terrible. Like, truly awful. Like, lay-on-the-floor-don’t-move-can’t-stretch-don’t-want-to-eat-fever-inducing awful. The thing is, instead of becoming discouraged, I channeled my energy into pinpointing exactly what had gone wrong to ensure I didn’t make those same mistakes again (see previously mentioned post).
I set my alarm early for a Sunday–6:30am. Upon getting out of bed, I mixed up some PB2 and added a sliced banana for pre-run fuel.
PB2 & Banana
I loaded up my Spi-Belt with chews (some Clif Shotblocks and some PowerBar energy chews).
Fuel
I pulled on my new compression running socks:
Purple socks to match my purple shoes!
And did my hair in my new favorite running style (the braid keeps it in place, but keeping the bottom in a ponytail makes the elastic more secure):
Slightly off-center ponytail
I had to add my Will Run for Ice Crema headband, since I knew I’d be enjoying some DQ ice cream cake that night in honor of my dad’s birthday.
Totally the truth.
Finally, after filling up my water bottle, I was ready to go! Unfortunately, I was back one mile later–the puppies had gotten ahold of my headphones, and they wouldn’t stay in my ears. (Very annoying!) Luckily, I had another pair and was out the door for a second time, warmed up and ready to go this time!
I’ve been listening to the first novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series for the past couple of weeks. I have to say, this is about my fourth vampire novel I’ve read (if you count all the Twlights as one book). And I don’t know why I keep trying them–I guess it’s because they’re so popular, I feel like I must just be missing something. But I’m sorry, I just can’t get into them. There is just nothing sexy to me about vampires. (I wrote a whole post about this on my old blog, actually.) However, I do like the characters well enough in this novel, it’s kept me interested enough while I run, and I’m on the second to last chapter, so I will finish it.
For this fifteen mile run, I broke it up mentally into three 5-milers. The first five miles, my goal was to go slow and steady. No miles faster than a 9:30 for me.
Mile 4, feeling pretty cheerful!
The second 5-miler, my goal was to maintain a steady pace. This ended up being right around 9:30. Around miles 7-9, I began to doubt myself. I could feel some IT band soreness coming on, and I began to worry because I was only halfway through. So, out loud, I began to repeat some inspirational words. (Yes, anyone who ran by me must have thought I was insane.) I spent about 10 minutes repeating words and phrases like: “You’ve got this!” “Let’s do it!” “You can do this!” “Mind over matter.” “Balance!” “Push through!” “Endure.” and, the one that stuck with me on this run: “Achieve.” You see, recently, I’ve realized that marathon-distance is really not my cup of tea. I’m not going to lie, guys–training for a marathon is tough. But I know that this is something I can do, and I want to do it–I really, really want to cross a marathon off of my bucket list. And this is the time of life to do it! So, I think for the rest of my training, “Achieve” will be my word mantra of choice.
I tend to get a little ridiculous around this point in a run…
The last five miles, I pushed myself. I took my last chew around mile 12 and then told myself to “Bring it home!” I didn’t want to stop running for one second, as my IT band was seriously sore by this point, and I knew if I let it tighten up it wouldn’t want to stretch out for me again. (Should I have stopped running? Maybe. Am I sorry I didn’t? Not a chance.)
On the last half-mile stretch toward home, B pulled up behind me in his car. He was on his way home from the gym. He drove past me slowly, clapping and pumping his fists in the air. As lame as this seems, it was really motivating! It gave me the oomph I needed to get up that hill and down our street, where I found B and the puppies waiting for me in the yard.
We didn’t stay outside for long though, as I was dying to get on the foam roller…
Ouch!
More about this later, but I’ve been a bad runner recently and skipped the foam roller way more than I’ve actually done it. This week, I’m re-committing to stretching and strengthening my hip flexors with rolling, Yoga, and the exercises Dennis taught me.
Overall, it was a fantastic run. I still can’t believe I ran 15 miles… but even more than that, I can’t believe that on April 28th I’ll be running that PLUS 11 more miles. Holy crap-ola.
Oh, and thank you Presidents (all of you!) for giving me the day off today. I am so enjoying watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch and blogging right now, and headed off to Yoga soon, then lunch with my parents, and planning to read on our comfy new couch this afternoon. Ahhhhhh.
How was your week? Did you have a long run/race/competition this weekend? How’d it go?
I loved the holiday parties when I was in elementary school. They made everything so festive and fun!
I can’t remember if I commented this to you on another post or not but have you tried The Stick. I am absolutely in love with that thing, as are my sore muscles and my boyfriend who keeps stealing it. Congrats on your 15 miler, you’ll be crossing the finish before you know it, and then looking for another one to run!
I have not tried the stick! Is it similar to a foam roller?
It does the same kinds of things but is a little gentler and you can control the pressure better. Also its a lot smaller so you can take it with you places and many of your muscles you can do it standing it so you don’t have to lay down to roll out. Its really good to have post race.
The Stick Marathon Stick
Thanks for the suggestion! I will have to check that out. If it’s smaller, maybe I could bring it to work and get some rolling in on my plan time
Oh, the joys of little kid holidays! I love being a mom to relive those types of celebrations with the Valentine bags/cards and all. So cute.
As are those hot pink skinny jeans! Love them on you!!!
Oh…and the fist pumping from the husband would totally have pumped me up at the end of a run too.