Taper & Taco Soup.

Rain rain, go away. Well, actually I don’t mind you that much…you can stick around for a little bit. Just give me my sunshine back sometime soon…deal? Deal.

It’s been storming here…we have been getting much needed rain. Okay by me. Last night since I had gone for a run in the a.m., I went home and made some turkey taco soup for me and the boo. I love making this soup on cold rainy nights. It is so easy to make and very filling.

Add your crushed tortilla chips, cheese, & serve! It also is great for the next day…so I plan on having some this evening for dinner.

yay for leftovers!

This morning it was still storming. There’s no way I play in lightning, so I knew it would be a treadmill run day. I got ready to head to the apartment gym and knock out a 6 miler. I like the treadmills at my gym, they have the TVs on them so I watched music videos on MTV and went to town. Eric decided to join me and lift weights and run by my side. So romantic.

he didn't know I took this photo. action shots are the best.

finito!

Tonight I will be taking it easy – cutting back a little on doing a hundred things since I’m tapering. Yes, the dreaded taper. So this week and the next I will be focusing on my running and resting my legs in the evenings. I’ve got a 9 miler this wknd then it’s downhill from there. I may teach a dance class or two in the meantime but that’s it. Bodypump…we’ll reconvene after the marathon, I promise.

I’ll be road tripping it down to Galveston for the marathon (it’s about a 5 hour drive from Dallas) with the boyfriend and both my dad and uncle will be meeting us down there. So it should be fun, I will have all my boys with me.

How do you cope with tapering? Do you love it/hate it? DO you taper before the marathon? 

Marathon Thoughts.

This morning’s run was delightful. I was wearing my magic Newton’s, floating along, no music, just me and the pavement.

There were a couple of people out and about, so I said “Good Morning” to them. Felt the crispness of the breeze on my face. Just kept telling myself to put one foot in front of the other. Thought at first I could only muster 6 miles. But no, you can go further, said self. You can push farther, go faster. You don’t need music. Keep going. It’s still early. The sun’s coming out.

Do you talk to yourself during runs? I definitely do. I think it may stem from me being an only child and really talking to myself about everything and always being in my own head all the time. But I have this coach inside of my head. This relentless coach that never lets me give up. That wants to fight all the time. I think it’s so important to have that mental game, especially in the marathon. I am a firm believer in the fact that your mental game can make or break a race. It’s those things that you say to yourself that will push you even closer to the finish.

During a marathon, I go through various phases. In the beginning, it’s all positive. The crowd support pumps you up, makes you feel like you are about to conquer the world. The gun goes off, you cross the start line and turn your watch on, and you just feel alive. Then as the miles go by and the crowd support dies down a little you are left to your own thoughts. It’s just you and nature. Where does your mind go at that point? Does it go south? I think that this is the moment where it counts. You really do have to turn those voices off. I read something the other day from blogger Craig Miller that really rang true to me.

Interview w/ triathlete Mark Allen from Inside Triathlon, Nov ’11

I think when you enter a state of calm and just turn all of the noise in your head off is when you can really do some of your best work. This morning during my 7 mile run, I did that. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, turned off the voices in my head of being tired, achy legs, whatever. I just kept pushing. No music, no motivation needed. All I needed to do was run. And It felt good all the way to the end.  I stopped at 7 miles, took a walk to cool down, said a prayer, went inside and got ready for work. Great morning.

I thought this was funny someone posted recently about thoughts during a marathon. Some of it is really true to form.

What are some of your thoughts during a race or marathon? Do you have a mantra you like to have with you? 

Mine is Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Manic Monday / Wknd Recap.

Just another manic Monday! Well, not really…it’s actually a pretty chill Monday. I am happy for that!

Ran 4 miles this morning – 8:17 pace – humid but nice & breezy. Tonite, spin class! Looking forward to that.

Breakfast was yummy! Blood Orange Chobani greek yogurt topped with chia seeds and honey.

This weekend was comprised of running, dancing, getting a massage from my favorite therapist (YES), and a little productivity with just a sprinkle of laziness!

Yeah pretty much a typical weekend.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early for an 18 mile training run. My plan was to run 12 solo and then the remaining 6 miles with my running group at 7 am. So…guess what time I was up and ready to go? Yup, you guessed it…4 am. Nice.

But, it got done! All 18.55 miles of fun!

18 miles...worth smiling about? Sure, I guess so.

After the run, I took a small chai tea latte break and booked it over to teach Danceaton at noon over at the 24 hour fitness in Irving. The class was energetic and lively. Typically they just look at me like I’m nuts but everyone was having a good time! We did a lot of dropping down low and crazy stuff…I don’t know how I did it but I had a little bit left in the tank and felt good. It could have had something to do with the carb loading dinner from the night before…

turkey meatballs, whole wheat pasta, feta cheese...YUM!!

 My recovery beverage definitely helped as well…

Saturday night, I was a vegetable. I stayed in and did some reading, watched the last little bit of the Olympic Trials. So emotional. I loved watching Shalene Flannagin, Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher crush it and make the Olympic Team! It really made me proud. These women worked so hard and are going to represent the U.S. in an awesome way.

Sunday Funday I went to Gaby’s Danceaton class at 24 Hr Fitness In Carrollton. After dance was church, then brunch with my mama at Houston’s Restaurant in Addison. They have this amazing ahi tuna salad that is to die for! This might quite possibly be my last meal on earth. Okay, maybe not, but it really does come close.

On Sunday I also tracked some of my pals that were running the Houston Marathon! I loved the live results page where I got to view them all at the same time. So cool.

It looked like everyone had a great race. I have this thing where when my friends are running in a marathon I get up extra early…like without my alarm clock all concerned, because they are the first thing on my mind. I can’t help it. It’s the running mother hen in me.

Sunday night I got some of my race medals together and finally hung up my medal rack in my apt! It looks great in my bedroom. I have a few more to add to this collection (5 more half marathon medals in my old bedroom at mom’s house) so they’ll be added to the rack soon. I know – it’s a little crooked, I’ll work on that later.

I also bought a purple tutu this weekend for the Galveston race! What do you think, purple tutu…tye dye shirt…winner?

Countdown til the Galveston Marathon – 20 days and counting! Thus the taper begins!

Have a great week! 

Runspiration.

Happy Hump Day! I hope you being all kinds of productive today. It’s my Thursday so I’m looking forward to the long 4 day weekend for sure! I will probably not be doing too much blogging as I’ll likely be eating, drinking, RUNNING, and being merry. Because really, isn’t that what Christmas is all about? I am looking forward to spending the Christmas holiday with some good friends, my sweet family, and my hottie of a boyfriend.

Hey Santa, I promise I've been good this year...for the most part.

I am also looking fwd to lots of fun runs this weekend with my running buddies. Starting with tonight…it’s Jingle Bell Run 5K night! I’ll be running and getting my jingle jangle on with the Luke’s Locker crew.

I'll more than likely be busting out the legwarmers again. It's a must.

Then, this weekend I’ll be doing a long marathon training run on Christmas Eve morning with my friend Lori & a few other buddies. (Oh yeah, who has another marathon coming up in less than 2 months? Yeah, that would be me.) Lori is an awesome marathon buddy of mine who is also a Luke’s Locker coach. She will be running the Houston marathon in January, and I’m doing the Galveston marathon in February. We’ll be running say 18 to 20 miles this weekend. It should be a good time! I’m looking fwd to the miles flying by while I catch up with her & some of our friends.

Me & Lori at the Rock N Roll New Orleans Marathon 2011

So since I haven’t done anything particularly Pinteresting lately, I figured I had better catch you up on what I’ve been pinning. I love Pinterest because not only does it give you amazing ideas about what to cook, how to decorate your home, or what fun silly crafts to start on, it also has really inspiring, motivating words to get you up and moving. And frankly, since it’s the holidays and all and since I don’t plan on eating clean and healthy all weekend (just keepin’ it real) I wanted to give you some words of RUNSPIRATION. Because I love me some sweets…but guess what…I also LOVE to MOVE and SWEAT, thus combating the naughty holiday eating! Can I get an amen?!

 

And on that note, I’ll leave you with a random photo of my Daystar work family from our Christmas potluck yesterday! Can you find me?

What are some words of RUNspiration that inspire you?