Craziness

Well it's been quite a week!! I've not exactly had a bunch of free time, but it's Friday and now I have too much free time!

I've spent most of this week studying for 2 tests that were today and yesterday. Along with studying came study group and 2 meetings. I only got 2 runs done, but I figure it was a good week to let my body take a break because my mind was doing so much work!!

I am officially one week away from my race weekend!! I booked a hotel today! Yay!! I'll be staying about a mile away from the race due to the fact that the host hotel was much more expensive than this college girl can afford!! I'm getting very excited!!

The only thing that separates me from this race is a small paper, two 3 mile runs, a 2 mile walk, and a lot of stretching, foam rolling, and rest!! I'm really hoping for a PR in my half marathon and I'll be getting an automatic PR in my 10k because I've never run one!! I might just have fun with the 10k though and take pictures so my legs aren't too tired for my half less than 12 hours later. Yikes!!

I can't say that anything too exciting is going on right now other than my race and school. I have an 8 mile run this weekend and then I'll be doing a bunch of lounging.

I did go grocery shopping today though! I'm super excited to be trying a few new recipes and redoing a few we liked from the last round. This batch of recipes includes sweet potato burgers, zucchini fries, rice and bean burgers, turkey burgers, the lovely stuffed pepper recipe we had not too long ago, and a few others. As you might be able to tell, I've been craving burgers lately and I feel like these are much healthier options. Especially when you think about how to fuel the week before the race!

I think that's enough rambling for now!

Until Next Time!

New Shoes!

If you read my last post  you know that I just got a new pair of running shoes!! I also purchased my first very nice pair of running socks.They were much needed and yesterday was the first day I got to take them out.

My run was just a 4 miler and I unfortunately I got a tad bit excited and raced the first 2 miles. Oops!! I went out way too fast, but even with the last 2 miles I stayed under 10 minutes with some stops and walking for a few seconds. It was a great run that I finished in under 39 minutes. I'm really proud of that. I know that this might be an anomaly, but I'm hoping that these new shoes will help free me enough to get some faster pacing in. 

These are my new socks. They were very interesting to try. They have great cushioning and of course the color is fantastic. If only they'd had orange.... Anyways. I'm looking forward to breaking these in a little bit and getting some mileage on them!! 

Overall, I am very happy with my new products and am looking forward to see how they hold up on me!! 

Also if you didn't notice, I took pictures of the funny ducks I pass on my route. I couldn't help it. I was enjoying every part of the experience!! 

Until Next Time!! 

QOTD: Have you ever taken pictures of something fun on your run???

Weekend Review

It's been a bit of an exciting weekend here in my house.

 Friday was the first day that it was actually warm. I was so excited!! Finally some warm weather!! It's too bad it's the end of my spring break. I was hoping to get an adventure in over the weekend, but that was to no avail. Tim had some work stuff to deal with and it was dragged out far enough that a trip just wasn't possible. Oh well!! Sometime soon perhaps.

Saturday I had to drag myself out of bed for a run. I didn't even get up until after 9. This can be difficult when you have 12 miles and you know it will take you over 2 hours. Well, that didn't go so great for me. After another painful run after about 5 or 6 miles, I had had enough. At mile 7 I took off my shoes and called Tim to come get me. I proceeded to run an extra mile or so in just my socks. I have to say I loved it. Other than having to watch for acorns, sticks, and glass, I felt really good doing this.

 I knew my shoes were the problem. They have been fighting my natural stride and causing major problems on my long runs. Enough already!! I went home, showered, and headed straight to the mall. I ended up falling for 2 pairs of shoes. The Brooks Pure Flow 2 and the Newton Distance. In LOVE!!! I opted for the Pure Flow 2 because of the price and the fact that I have 3 weeks until my races and I need a training shoe. I'm thinking about going back for the Newton's before summer just to have it as a race shoe. The Flow 2's are perfect though. They have  4mm drop, they are a mid strike shoe, and they are exactly what I need for running on my toes already. I can't wait to try them out on my 4 mile run tomorrow. I'll have a review then!

While I was at the store, I grabbed a pair of Experia socks and a few new GU flavors I'm excited to try. 

In other news, today is Sunday and I plan on just doing a bit of stretching and foam rolling to help my hips. Nothing too exciting. Maybe attempting to get back in the swing of things for school tomorrow. We'll see what happens! 

Until Next Time! 

Ramblings of a College Student

I am currently on spring break. No, I'm not writing this is Cancun, my beach front hotel somewhere, the Keys, or my room on a cruise. I'm writing this in my cozy apartment in North Central Florida. I can say that the most exciting aspects of this week have been sleeping in past 7am, cooking new food, and going out to eat on a few occasions. I know, I know. Spring break only comes once a year, so I might as well go crazy.

Seriously though, I've had a pretty good week. I made 3 new recipes and we loved all 3!!! I made zucchini pizza sticks, spaghetti squash, and stuffed eggplant.

They were all extremely simple recipes and the only one that took a bit longer to make was the stuffed eggplant. 

For the zucchini rolls we cut zucchini in half length wise, scooped a little canyon into each half, put some spaghetti sauce in the crevice, added some cheese and baked at 350 until the zucchini was soft. You could really do a lot with this recipe. You could add toppings and different sauces and cook to different softness. It was really quite simple and we didn't go too crazy because we didn't have too much in the house. 

The spaghetti squash was another simple one. Cut the squash in half length wise and scoop the pumpkin like goop out of the center. Cook for about 45 minutes to an hour in a 375 degree oven. Ours were done about 45 minutes in. Then remove strands with a fork. We added a little bit of parm cheese and some pasta sauce and fell in love with this!! Neither of us had had spaghetti squash before so it was one we look forward to trying again. 

For the stuffed eggplant recipe we had to modify just a bit because we didn't have everything. It was still super simple and I was done cooking everything in about 30-45 minutes. We loved this one as well. Both of us have had eggplant Parmesan, but to just have the eggplant was new to us. The stuffing made it so flavorful and it's so healthy with the filling being mostly veggies and some ground turkey. 

Try these!!! They will not disappoint!! 

On a running note, I've had some rough runs this week that didn't get to the distance I wanted. I missed a 6 by .7 and a 4 by .25, but I'm taking today as a super rest day to stretch, foam roll, and relax before my 12 mile run tomorrow. It will be my last big run before I start to taper next week. I'm getting more excited every day for the races at the end of the month!! I can't wait!! 

From Here

Sorry for the long post today!! Until Next Time!!

Healthy Eating

I have to say that for a broke college student, finding recipes that are cheap, easy, healthy, and most importantly cheap are hard to find. A lot of recipes I find expect that your kitchen is stocked or have quite an ingredients list. It's very difficult to just find simple!

Enter Pinterest. The Mecca of recipes. I have been able to find so many and have successfully tried a few. The links to blogs and new things are endless!!

Because Friday was my 2 year anniversary with Tim and we weren't sure we wanted to go out, making dinner was a great option. I used this time to pick about 4 new recipes to make for the week and shopping we went!! I was so excited that we didn't spend much at all. And we got so much healthy stuff!! Not to mention a 9x13 pan I've been dying to get.

We ended up making stuffed peppers. It was so simple and took less than an hour to make. Here is where the recipe came from. It was so delicious and made my 11 mile run the next day feel amazing. Simple and small ingredient list made this a winner. I really can't wait to try it again. You should too!!

Hopefully I'll have some more amazing recipes and pictures as the week goes on! 

Until next time! 

Progress

So I am officially signed up for the Tour de Pain: Extreme for March 29 and 30th!! I couldn't be more excited for these races. While the medals and tshirts help the cause, this is more about the challenge.

I'm sitting here on my couch next to my puppy in all of my race gear waiting to see if I have to run 11 miles by myself or with my running buddy. I don't know if you just read that, but I'm about to run 11 miles. 11 miles!!! Can you believe that??? Yes, I've run a half marathon already. No, I'm not new to the distance. This is different though. I feel like I'm training for the first time for real.

When I trained for the Princess Half marathon in 2012 I could probably use the term "train" loosely. Yes, I printed a plan, I gave myself a month to get up to running 3 miles, and I was as ready as a non runner could be to run. About a month before the race my schedule got crazy and I stopped training. The longest run I had before I stopped was 7 miles. This is still a good distance, but it is still 6 miles short of a half marathon. Needless to say, the half marathon was one of the hardest things I've ever done. My mile times were all over the place. When I started I was at low 11 and by the time I got to 7 or 8 I was getting up to 14, 15, and 16 minute paces. I was able to speed back up to about 12 or 13 for the last few miles, but it wasn't fun.

Ignore my messy desk!

I was not prepared!!! Preparation is key. If you're not ready you could really hurt yourself. I just wanted to run the race and get the medal. From then on I was hooked on Disney races and trying to better myself.

I did train for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10 miler. I actually lost a bit of weight doing so. I stuck to my training and began to figure out my pacing. The race had other plans for me though. The humidity and the boring course had me at high 11 minute pace when I had been training at around a 10:30. It was very disappointing.

So this is my first chance to really prove myself. After coming off my injury I'm ready to do big things. I have my 2:30 goal for the half in mind and I couldn't be more excited. I've come so far since I started training for the first half and I have grown and become the athlete I once was. Running is my new best friend and I have a feeling we're going to go very far together.

Until next time!