5 Goals for July!

Alrighty, I’m back. This week begins a new month with new goals. Since the last I posted, there’s a couple of things that have happened that I’ll recap in posts coming this week. Among these recaps – I raced Ironman 70.3 Victoria! Talk about a wild experience! I thought I was going to die, I thought I was amazing, and I thought I could do anything, all in the same race. We’ll talk about it soon 🙂

Today, I’d like to briefly talk about some of the goals that I have for the month of July. Some of them require a titch more planning than other goals, but regardless, they all need mentioning. I think that goals are more likely to be achieved when you have just a few things to focus on, as opposed to just listing everything you want at once. So for the month of July, I’ll be focusing on 5 major goals.

1) Start building running mileage – including starting weekend long runs. Since the Ironman race, I’ve been keeping my swimming up, I’ve run a couple of times, and I’ll begin commuting to work via biking again this week. However, Seattle full marathon training starts the first weekend of August, so I need to spend this month starting to build my mileage. My goal is 3 4-6 mile runs during the week and starting to incorporate a long run or 8+ miles on the weekend. This should build my base enough to feel super confident getting into marathon training. I’ll be trying to get at least a few hill training sessions this month and a couple of speed workouts on the track now that school is out. Preferably, I’d like one of each per week. We’ll see how that goes.

2) Keep up strength training 2-4 times per week. I allowed myself a couple of strict recovery days following the Ironman race and then jumped into the 21 day fix workouts. It has been amazing. My running has been stronger, my swimming times are going down, and I feel awesome. Once the 21 days are over, I’d like to start lifting somewhat heavy again. Getting into those deadlifts, heavy squats, etc. Strength training always seems to fly out the window when I start a training regimen, and in order to reach my goals for the marathon, I need to get up that strength training. It’ll also help keep my weight loss going.

3) Start becoming a bit more creative with my new eating lifestyle. I’ve adopted a vegetarian (for personal reasons) and gluten free (for allergy reasons) lifestyle. In conjunction with the 21 day fix program, Super Husband and I have totally turned our eating habit around. It’s been amazing. We’ve been cutting the majority of the processed food out of our lives, taking notice of all products with hidden sugar, and trying to be more conscious of the food that we put into our bodies. I’ll do a review of this lifestyle change in a couple of days, but it’s been superb. The goal this month is to be more creative with some of my recipes. We’ve been eating the same type of things for the last week-ish, so it’s time to mix it up.

4) Mix up my outdoor activities! It’s that time of the year that happy hours should be replaced with outdoor picnic, outdoor movies, and outdoor activities. I would love to get on at least 1 hike this month, get on a stand up paddle board once or twice, and definitely take a kayaking trip around Lake Washington. I have a good feeling this goal will be achieved a few times over 🙂

5) Read 2 books. This goals is more mental health related than physical, but it’s all related. Given that it’s summer and the weather is so amazing right now, I need to make more of an effort to get out of the house, unplug, and read a good book. I have so many lined up, just waiting to be cracked open. I think 2 books is a pretty good goal for this month, but hopefully I can blow this one out of the water!

Ok, July! Lets do it! See you in a couple of days!

Starting Out on a Good Foot!

I’m off to a great start! Well, I usually start of in a great spot, like so many other awesome folks out there, the trouble for me is sticking with my great start.

Yesterday, my morning breakfast started as such:

Is there really a problem with have more veggies than egg to cover the veggies? That bowl contains half a zucchini, a whole red bell pepper, 1 egg, 2 egg whites, and some salsa to top it off. I cooked this up after I went on a 4 mile run before work, which I followed with this strength workout:

-Lateral and front raises (10 reps) super setted with 15 calf raises – 4x
-Bicep curls (12 reps) super setted with 10 air squats – 4x
-Military presses (12 reps) with 10 lunges (each leg) – 4x
-Planks
-Lots of stretching

In between each set, be sure to answer an email or two so it still seems like you’re working. I’m really lucky to have a flexible job that allows me to work from home when I have an appointment – in this case, a hair appointment. Treat yo self!

Once I got done with my work day, I jetted off to meet my sister in law for our Wednesday night workout. We usually swim but due to my hair appointment, I couldn’t get into the chlorine pool. I rowed 5k before she arrived:

And then we ended up on the elliptical. We made time pass with this workout:

-10 min warm up
-10 min hill – increase the resistance with every minute
-10 min downhill – decrease resistance with every minute
-5 min recovery
-15 min sprints – 45 second as fast as possible – 1 min 15 sec recovery
-10 min cool down

Definitely got the sweat dripping!

Today, I was greeted with these messages, thanks to my yogi tea. It’s always a nice reminder to keep you in check for the day.

Tonight’s docket includes my first OWS for the season, followed by a run home – about 3.5-4 miles, and our first 21 day fix workout. Husband and I are going to follow the 21 day fix workout schedule and focus on clean eating for the next 21 days. For clean eating, we’re trying to remove processed foods from our diets and anything that comes out of a bag should have only 5 or less ingredients. This should take me until the Victoria Ironman 70.3, so any extra strength, core, and stretching workouts I can get in before then is definitely welcomed. The workouts are only 30 minutes, so it’ll be easy to fit in right before bedtime.

21 days is nothing right?

And I’m Back..

Alright party people, meaning the one person that may read this little entry. I know it’s been a while, I know I haven’t been the most consistent little thing on the planet when it comes to this corner of the internets, but I think this is going to be good for me. We’ll get back to that phrase in just a bit.

I know this blog is called PuddleRunner, but I’ve been doing a little more than running lately. I’ve been biking, swimming…oh and before I went that direction, I was just eat eat eating after I got married married married. I was one of those newlyweds. The wedding was over, I had been continuously training for this half marathon, that full marathon, that triathlon for 3 years. I was tired, I was overworked, and I lost control. Me, the control freak in most other areas of her life, lost control of what felt like everything. My husband had medical episode, literally while still standing in the airport, upon our return from our honeymoon. There was little joy that I could find, coming from planning the wedding, the honeymoon, and now dealing with another medical mystery and working opposite schedules from each other. I found comfort in my couch, dog cuddles, and food. Honestly, it wasn’t even good food. It was really crappy food. Candy here, chips there, Kraft dinner everywhere. I didn’t have supervision for any of my meals, friends still wanted to celebrate the wedding (and who would say no to Happy Hours every day of the week?), and no one was standing there when I went through the self check out line at the grocery store. In the end, I gained 30 pounds in a short amount of time, following the wedding. While a lot of women look back on their 10-20-30 year wedding anniversary and say “I wish I could fit back in my wedding dress”, it took me 1 short month to figure out that I wasn’t going to fit into mine. And that made me more sad, which resulted in more of those aforementioned indulgences (which became not as indulgent indulgences).

So, upon my return to this blogular space of mine, this is going to be a somewhat different space. This is going to turn into a space in which I can document my quest to return to my wedding weight, if not less. Less would be super, since I’m only 5’1” on a good day. This is will follow my very hard journey with food, my very hard relationship with how one moment of disappointment in my day can propel me into a fit of binge eating. So here we go. I’m back. I’m determined to be consistent with myself, consistent with my workout, consistent with my eating. This isn’t about punishing myself for what I’ve done. It’s about trying to find a way to keep myself for burying my feelings in those bags of goodies, time and time again.

Starting weight: 185
Current weight: 185
Goal weight 1: 155
Goal weight 2: 135

Game on.

Weekly Workout 12/30-1/5

I had intended to post this recap on Sunday but the day ran away from me, so here we are. In the future, I’ll be throwing this down on Sunday evenings.

12/30 – 1 hour steady incline walk on treadmill
I met a friend at the gym on Monday morning and I walked for an hour at 3.8 MPH with a 4.5% incline. Definitely enough to keep a steady heart rate increase for 60 minutes.

12/31 – Rest

1/1 – 1 hour power vinyasa hot yoga
Magical. This session of hot yoga reminded me how amazing hot yoga actually is. It’s been over a year since I’ve practiced hot yoga and I definitely needed this reminder. I went home and immediately purchased the Groupon for the studio and I plan on making this a regular practice. I need to get to the point where I’m not draining like a faucet by the middle of the class.

1/2 – 4 mile run – 39 minutes – 6 minute walking cool down
1 mile warm up, 1 mile progression every .5 mile, 2 miles of 2 min sprint/1 min recovery intervals. I was in love with this run. I have been relatively lucky in the speed runs that I’ve been doing lately. They’ve really opened my eyes that I’m more than capable of running fast, and I can feel the benefit of them as I do my long runs.

1/3 – Rest – Due to an odd schedule that day. I didn’t want this to be a rest day. I’ll have to learn how to deal with this dilemma in the future.

1/4 – Rest – Active rest with most of the day spent walking.

1/5 – 8.5 mile long run
My longest run since the marathon last spring. I drove to Greenlake and got two 2.8 mile laps in before I met a friend to run the final lap. I was definitely tired by the end of the run, but I have really missed the feeling that I get later in the day of having tired legs. After the 12K’s of Christmas run, I was in pain, but this was a dull ache where I just knew that I had a good run. I know that I could have run for a little longer, so I’m looking forward to having a longer long run this week.

Something that I definitely noticed was not a lot of running this week. I was proud of myself for feeling like I needed to work out, and getting to the gym 3 times (4 times if I were to count last Sunday), but I definitely did not run enough this week. Um, 1 speed workout, the end? No, I don’t think so. This week will see a change a in the number of runs, as well as hard cardio sessions. When I focus on the quality of my runs that I get in during the week, I always see a positive impact of my long run on the weekend, so I intend to focus my energy on the quality and quantity of my training runs this week.

Five Things Friday

I think that I’ve decided that the easiest way for me to keep up with my blogging efforts is probably to do some weekly posts, you know, so I don’t have to be creative all on my own. I’m pretty proud of this decision 🙂 Look forward to my weekly recap of workouts on Sunday. It’ll be riveting, I’m sure. Onto the first of many Five Things Friday:

1) Super BFs birthday cake was homemade this year, and I’m so proud of it. This lucky duck was presented with a Lemon Raspberry Cake with lemon curd and raspberry filling with cream cheese frosting topped with fresh raspberries. There wasn’t enough batter to make two rounds, not to mention my round cake pan got misplaced, but we were able to use one square pan and cut the cake diagonally in half and stack it. I loooooved it! It was tangy and sour, but the raspberries made it a little sweeter. Definitely not your usual cake.

Don’t look so happy, manfriend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Going back to work this week means my usual breakfast at work. Whole wheat toast with smashed avocado and pepper on top. Delicious. I think I had it once when I was on holiday, but nothing compares to the simplicity of this breakfast. It was so delicious. It doesn’t look appetizing, but believe me. So. Yummy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Over break, I had the beautiful opportunity to babysit my little nieces by myself. For the first time. Both of them. Alone. I don’t know who thought I was going to survive that. But I did, and so did my amazing puppy friend. He got a little tortured for a few hours, but he took it like a champ. We had some play time, some dinner time, some bath time, some teeth brushing time, story time, and bed time. And I did it! I’m not the natural maternal type, I don’t think, but I pulled it off. I think they like me a little. Our house looked like it was blown to smithereens, but that’s an easy fix.

I see a puppy that thinks he’s about to be

rewarded with a little bite of s’more. I don’t think so, furry friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
4) Speaking of the nieces, sometime around Christmas, my youngest niece actually started smiling for pictures! She’s a big giggler and smiler, but put the camera in front of her, and she looks like she’s getting told that she can’t have anymore chocolate. Poor kid. I think the key is that I also showed her how the iPhone can have the reverse camera, and she also found the button that clicks the picture. I’m now the owner of approximately 15 pictures of the same smiley little face of this tiny friend of mine.

How can you not love that little smile?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) My workouts this week! This was the first week in a while that I actually had some regular workouts. I ran a few times, did some yoga, stretched it all out, rested a bit, and it was amazing. I’m loving my new shoes that I received for Christmas, more on that later, and I cannot get enough of the sweat! It feels amazing to sweat again and just feel like I’m doing something with my life again. I thought I got burnt out of running and constantly having a running schedule, but I don’t think so. I think having a training schedule is just what I need in order to stay sane in my crazy corner of the world.

So there you have it! Five things on a Friday. I think we’ll keep this going, and next week it should, maybe, be more nutritionally or fitness focused. If I want it to be 🙂

 

 

2014

Well, that initial attempt at regular blogging didn’t really pan out. I burnt out on running and exercising, and without a training schedule I began to wane on most of my efforts in the health and fitness arena. All of this, in combination with some personal situations that were affecting my own self esteem, I felt like I would have just be complaining about most things. So what was I supposed to write about?

Since I fell off the planet, we’ve had a Thanksgiving, a 3 year dating anniversary has passed, a wonderful date to the Nutcracker, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve have passed. Most of these occasions were wonderful however, to be truthful, my Christmas spirit was fading a good week before Christmas ever happened so we can just jump to yesterday, which was much more than New Year’s Eve. It also happened to be Super BF’s birthday, so he jumped from his mid-20’s into his late-20’s. I think it’ll affect his old man knees most, but we’ll see! I think he had a good birthday. We had a nice dinner out and enjoyed a nice evening in with a couple friends, a board game, and a good bowl of Chex Mix. And with the midnight Cheers also came in some resolutions that I’m extra determined to keep track of this year. Here we go – the resolutions of 2014:

1) Stop buying candy – I’ll admit it. I developed a very odd habit this year. One that I’ve never had before. I thought about candy a lot. Too much. I would think about it all day, and pick some up alllllllll the time at the grocery store. While I don’t think that this had a huge effect on my waistline during marathon, STP, or triathlon training, I think I probably would have seen better effects if I wouldn’t have continuously indulged. It should have been an “every once in a while thing”, but it never was. I’m not making a resolution to stop eating candy, but I am making a resolution that I will not be buying the candy for myself. Bring on the Easter basket, no thank you to the after Easter candy sale. No matter how amazing the deal is on Robin’s Eggs – my ultimate weakness. Ugh.

2) Break a 5 Hour Marathon Time – My last marathon time was 5:35. I trained to be able to finish the race, which I did, and I was happy about. I didn’t hurt as much as I thought I was going to, but I also wasn’t as winded or tired afterwards as I thought I was going to be. I know I can run better than that. So this time around, I will be training for time. I will break 5 hours. I know I can, and I will. I’ll be running 2 marathons this year, maybe 3 depending on my strength. Whether it is in May, September, or November, this resolution will happen.

3) Incorporate Strength Training and Cross Training Twice a Week – I will be competing in 2 triathlons this year, as well as 2 bike races – one shorter distance and one 2 day, 200 mile ride. Last year I didn’t train on the bike as much as I could have, and I was not as strong as I could have been. The more well-rounded I am as a triathlete and the more strength I carry in my arms, legs, and core, the better chance I have at PR’ing in every distance, as well as breaking my marathon goal time.

4) Read at Least One Book per Month – I miss reading for pleasure. Now that I’m not in school, I suppose this should just be “I miss reading. Period.” I will be reading at least one book per month. Look forward  to the reviews once I’m done. This will definitely make me feel accountable.

5) Take Advantage of the Area Around Me – I need to explore more. I want to hike in trails that I’ve never experienced, I want to visit parks that I’ve never gone to, and I want to eat at all the taco trucks 🙂 We live in an amazing area with such a wide variety of things to do and I feel like we’re wasting it. Due to some fiscal reasons in 2013, we haven’t gone out much, however there are too many things in the forests and by the water that are completely free. No more letting life pass me by, I’m going to take advantage of it.

and 6) Positivity – I wasn’t the happiest that I could have been in 2013. I didn’t smile or laugh as much as I should have. I’ve learned so many things. Life sometimes doesn’t go as planned, and that’s ok. We made it through the storm, we survived, and I feel like I’m getting emotionally and mentally stronger. I’m getting my old self back. I need to hold onto the good memories, I need to laugh and smile and earn my old lady wrinkles. If they’re going to show up, they’re going to be a result of amazing things.

Today started marathon training for the BMO Vancouver Marathon on May 4. My hot yoga studio that I haven’t visited in over a year was hosting free yoga classes all day, so that is where training began. It was hard, it was sweaty. So sweaty. I was a faucet. And it was amazing. I’ve purchased a punch card so I’ll be able to make my weekly appearances and hone my practice. Tomorrow means I’m finally back to work, in a new office building, which means back to morning gym visits. 4 miles of speed tomorrow morning. Long run this weekend of 8-10 miles depending.

Well this was long without pictures. Not the most ideal first post back, but here we are. Stay tuned!

Super quick

Just a quick check in as my vacation comes to an end and I get ready to go back to work on Monday. I’m a little torn about whether this week felt like it went by super fast, or if it went by very slowly. I guess that means that I’m pretty satisfied with my time off, which is always a good sign for returning to the office.

The last couple days have been filled with spin classes and body works with abs classes with my sister-in-law, and eating some super yummy and delicious foods. We had an amazing instructor for our spin class that just made me melt for about an hour. 25 miles later on my little stationary bike, I was ready for a relaxing day with our pup, so that’s what I had. We found a chipotle lime panko breading at the store a few weeks ago, so we had a plate of cilantro parsley pasta from the market on Wednesday and some breaded and sautéed fish. Cod for Super BF, salmon for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We scored in an amazing way when our phenomenal spin instructor turned out to be our body works class instructor also. I followed that class up by meeting one of my best friends a little ways up north for some breakfast with her beautiful little 2 month old. Super BF and I finished the night by going to the Michael Buble concert in Seattle. It was an amazing with some amazing singing, tears, and laughter. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

This morning we spent some quality time with a roller blading little niece, a grandpa, and their puppy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a 9 mile run on the docket for tomorrow, which should be a fun endeavor if the rain keeps up, but I am extremely ready to for this week to start and to get back on a consistent work out and nutrition routine. Call me a sucker for lists and routines.

Stay tuned for a run recap for tomorrow and a plan for the rest of the week!

Our 11th Anniversary

Vacation so far? Success! I’ve slept in, spent time with some amazing friends, eating some delicious food, and taken part in a couple runs.

My best friend and I celebrated our 11th anniversary of being best friends this afternoon. We started last night with a classic girls night, girls movies, wine, and oreos obviously. This morning, we headed out to spend an amazing day perusing Pike’s Place Market and downtown Seattle.

Breakfast at an amazing french bakery is how we started:

 

 

 

 

 

Delicious coffee and chocolate croissants in the chilly fall air. I made a “things to do this fall” list back in September. And this coffee and these croissants from this specific bakery was number 1 on the list. We’ve also accomplished the going to the pumpkin farm, carving a pumpkin, going to a haunted house, and running through leaves items on the list. I think our fall hiking and bike riding will definitely be accomplished this weekend, assuming the weather holds up. You never know out here.

Yesterday was filled with a spectacular 7 mile run. I pushed it pretty hard, for me. It was my longest run since the marathon, and had an average pace of 10:15. I’m pretty happy and pleased with how the run went. I didn’t look at my watch for the entirety of the run. I just pushed my pace at a comfortable long run pace and I kept it up! There were some points of the run where I got a little winded and tired, but with every up hill comes a down hill, and I took a couple small breaks when I needed them. I did face some hip pain and I pushed through it. I’m not entirely sure what is going on with my hip, but I know that if it continues, I’ll need to make an appearance at my favorite little doctor’s office.

Day 6 of vacation has a morning spin class and run with my sister-in-law. I’m going to try to throw some awesome weights in there. Strength training is always important 🙂

And to cap off this little entry, a pretty little picture of a happy little puppy out for a glorious afternoon walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until tomorrow!

Today’s the Day!

Today is my first day of my 9 day holiday from work! While I don’t have super exciting, amazing plans, I do have some fun things up my sleeves. First, my workouts from the week:

Wednesday’s Leg Day Workout:
Warm up – 25 Air Sqauts, 25 Body Weight Good Mornings, 25 slow lying leg raises
Leg Press – 3X25 – 90 lbs
Hack Squat – 3X10
Squat Combo – 5 reps of each squat, 3 setss – Overhead Squat, Front Squat, Back Squat – 30 lbs
Leg Extension – 3X20 – 35 lbs
Straight Leg Deadlift – 3X10 – 30 lbs
Calf Raises – 3X20 – 45 lbs
Hamstring Curls – 100 reps no stopping – 25 pounds
15 minutes of ellitptical
15 minutes of stretching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday’s Rest Day:
I woke up to head out to go to the gym early Thursday morning, but I had been feeling pretty tired during the last few days. I decided that an extra hour of sleep would probably be a good decision for today. The rest of the day, between work and traffic, took it out of me, but I think this rest day was a good decision? My legs were pretty tight from lifting on Wednesday, so I think it was a good idea.

Friday’s Workout:
Missing my workout on Thursday resulting in spending an hour and a half in traffic getting to work. That was the bad decision part of the rest day. So I got my booty out of bed yesterday morning, beat morning traffic, and made it to the gym for 4 miles of hills. I did one warm up mile, .5 mile with increasing speed, and 2.5 miles of interval hills between 4% and 5% incline on the treadmill. It was a good day for the legs! There was a little bit of pain in my hips, but some planks, pigeon stretches, and some upward and downward facing dogs fixed me up pretty well.
Today!
This started with a glorious and amazing run with the one, singular person that made me successful at running. She is also, coincidently, the perosn who introduced Super BF and I, so I owe her aaaaaaalmost my entire life. she’s recovering from an ankle injury from last Spring, so we made one lap around Greenlake around a 10 min mile – 3 miles, and then we walked another lap before parking ourselves at the Starbs for a quick cup of tea to warm us up.

The rest of the day was glorious. A quick drive to Bellingham for an amazing cake a coffee date with my two best friends and a new tiny little baby to play with. Everyone needs a little bit of cake in their lives.

In or cases, we needed a lot of cake — and baby cuddles.

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! While I was following along with some of my favorite bloggers running the ING NYC Marathon, I was hit with yet another wave of motivation. One of the side effects of my recovery and not being in a “gung-ho” training program has been a little lack of motivation. While marathon training, I was up and at ‘em right when that alarm went off at 4:30am. There was nothing more gratifying than getting 9-10 miles in before work, and I was so proud of myself.

Nowadays, the sweet puppy dog is learning to crawl into bed when my alarm first goes off at 5:00am, which means cuddling in bed with little puppy snores a little more appetizing than going and scraping my windshield in gym clothes. But this is changing today! There’s nothing like reading marathon and race reviews to have the motivation monster come back out to play. I’ve been toying around with the idea of signing up for the Half Ironman that is close to my town for next summer. I spent this weekend looking at training schedules, reading the massively long rule book, and trying to really decide whether or not I could actually accomplish this. My conclusion? Of course I can! And it started this weekend, with the return of the weekend long run:

The run started out with this sad face. I don’t run with my phone unless this happens, and I’m still not sure what the best way of carrying it is. I figured out with the emergence of the long sleeve running top – I just stuck it up my sleeve against my palm and Garmin. Totally worked out great.

These horsies thought my run was just as exhausting as I did!

I was so happy with this run. I had originally planned on this being a 7 mile run, but I turned around at the 3 mile marker because my hip was starting to feel the hills more than I would have liked. I’m so happy to be back to planning long run weekends, and I think that I’ll be all set for a nice and slow Half Marathon on Thanksgiving morning. Next weekend, I have an 8-9 miler on the schedule that I think will go just fine 

Other fun things from this weekend? A hockey game that ended in a pretty sore score for our home team, but it was nice to get out of the house.
My after work workout today has shoulders and triceps on the docket, with some cardio intervals and good stretching afterwards. Bring it on, week! I have a marathon and half ironman to get ready for!