Monthly Archives: September 2011

I’m so happy!

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I woke up with an extra spring in my step and smile on my face this morning…. and haven’t been able to wipe that ridiculous smile off my face all day! Here

1. I’ve almost been married for two months, and I can’t tell you how much I’m LOVING my married life! It’s so much more relaxed and wonderful then I ever imagined! We are both settling into a routine, and enjoying working out together (and taking showers together ;) , cooking together… and waking up next to him every morning. It’s amazing! 2. My amazing five-finger shoes came in! I love them, well, I love looking at them. My calves hurt lie crazzzzy, and I’ve got a blister from breaking them in. But they are so pretty and pink :) I’m in love.

3. Fall is here. Kind of. It’s been between 60F-80F all week and I’m loving it like crazy! We are sleeping with the doors and windows open, which, of course, means we can snuggle! This means Chai Tea, huge sweaters, toques, jeans, and of course… more snuggling with Tyler :) . In fact, he showed me the weather last evening and it showed it was going to be 61F overnight, and he said, “we can sleep with the windows open!” and my reply was ” and then we can snuggle!” with a little girly grin of glee :)

I’m hopeless.

It’s really not my fault Tyler is so stinking adorable and cuddly. How can I help it?

4. We started going to a new church a couple weeks ago, and I’ve been attending the women’s bible study. We’ve been going through the study “Conversation Peace” by Mary Kassian. It’s supposed to “help women revolutionize their speech habits and positively avoid sharing gossip, throwing negative barbs, or snapping sarcastic replies throughout everyday life”. We’ll see how it helps… she really has us digging through the Bible to answer all our questions for our homework, and I’m really enjoying it!

 

5. ANNNNNNNND our poor little selves got a FREE couch just given to us! We are so blessed :) It completely fills up our living room and makes it the coziest room ever. I’m excited to start decorating for fall/Thanksgiving… which will make our red walls so much more festive! Apparently we have to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, and Tyler even mentioned getting a tree! I get all excited just thinking about it…

What are you happy about? Sometimes when it feels like everything is going wrong, in order to maintain your sanity, you have to dwell on the things are going right in your life. We’ve had a whirl-wind summer/fall, so it feels so good to settle into a routine and start building on our life together… and things have started falling into place. That’s the final thing I’m happy about… a little routine :)

 

Discipline for training

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I’m afraid this post isn’t as inspiring as some of my others… I’ve been incrediably lazy all week, and haven’t run since Tuesday. I did the bike for 30 min and then weights on Friday, and by Monday, I was incrediably guilty. So I ran 4.67 miles in 50 minutes. It’s really not a great run, but I’m just proud to be running that distance. It’s going to take some serious work to reach my goal of 45 minutes for my Neptunes Fest on October 1st! I’m hoping to be running with some friends, so that will make me run faster… I hope!

If I’m going to reach my goal of running the half-marathon in March, it’s going to take a lot of work. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or I don’t feel well. I still need to get out there and get my exercise in. I’m still going to take care of my body, but I’m going to start being relentless about working out EVERY DAY. Maybe I’ll get two REST days a week, but none of this FOUR rest days that I took last week. Running isn’t fun for me, and it’s definately not easy, but I feel wonderful when I’m done, and I know that I’m going to reach my goal.

I’m strong, and I know that through Christ I can do anything. He tells us to ”run with patience (endurance, persistence) the race set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith … For consider Him that endured … lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” (Heb 12:1-3)

 – the need for endurance is obvious; the focus of our vision; keeping the rules; self-discipline; and the desire and determination to win. If we lack in any of these areas, we will become vulnerable to defeat and failure.

In every area of my life, I want to be disciplined, in my eating, quiet time with God, and maintaining my school… so this training is a glimpse in my overall disciple.
As I’m able to be disciplined in every other area of my life, I  will be able to be disciplined enough to prepare for the Shamrock Half-Marathon in March.

Squats.

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On Tuesday I went for a nice little 3 mile run and came back to the apartment. Tyler, having just pumped iron (like a REAL man) in the gym, encouraged me to do 50 squats.

Ok, it went more like this…

Tyler : “I used to do 50 squats after every run”.
Amanda : “That’s nice”.
Tyler: “You should do 50 squats after your run”
Amanda: “Haha. You’re kidding. I’m not doing that. That’s dumb”
Tyler: “It’s just because you can’t do them”
Amanda: “50?! Of course I can DO them. I just don’t want to”. <Glare>
Tyler: “hahaha. Whatever”

So, he manipulated me into doing 50 squats after my run. Which was really easy.

Except now it’s Friday and I’m still falling in my chair, seat in the car, toilet… etc because I’m in so much pain. Jerk. I literally can’t even run because I’m in so much pain. If I can’t run my half marathon in March, I’m blaming him ;)

Running for Me

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So I took two days off last week. My run at Trashmore was aweful and I was completely exhausted. So I took the next two days to get some good protien and treated my body to sleep… And I was ready to run Saturday. 
I did two miles on loose sand on the beach. My time was about 10:25 minute/mile which sounds pathetic but it was a great run and my calves were killing me. Tyler kinda laughed and teased me that I only did two when I wanted to do four, but I tried to brush it off… When his brother and girlfriend came over for breakfast immediately afterwards, I felt kind of embarrassed of my little run… Because they were heading out for eight miles. FAIL. I fought with the question “Why do I even bother running?” 
Then, that night over supper, they talked about there almost half marathon run… That was done at 9:20 minute/mile. Then they both looked at each other with googly eyes and talked about how fast they are. Then Tyler jumps in and brags about his time, and I’m determined to never talk about my running again. I kinda laughed about what a lame runner I am, because I was insecure- hoping someone would say something encouraging like “we all started somewhere”… Just because I felt like SUCH a failure.  
I got up Sunday morning and ran five miles. I decided that I don’t CARE about all those people, I’m running by myself and I’m running for me. They can go on and on about their distance and time… I’m never going to impress them, so I won’t care. The opinion of others isn’t going to change my goals, I’m going to be proud of myself. 
I’m disciplined and going to accomplish my goals. And be proud of however well I do because I’m not doing it for them… I’m doing it for me :)

Right on Track…

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Yesterday, I blew myself away… I’m so proud! I was going to try run 3 miles in 35 minutes (I’m a VERY SLOW runner) and I did it in a grand total of 26:46 Min at an average pace of 8:55. I totally rocked it! Having a normal average of about 10 min/mile, this is really, really good for me! My husband, who was running with me, was really proud of my determination and told me this is the best he’s ever seen me run! The cooler weather and wind off the ocean really helped me keep up my pace and make it the full 3 miles.

Tonight, my hubbs and I are going to tackle Mt. Trashmore. We’ve gone for a walk around there once, but I’ve never worked out there. Apparently it’s a beast. The plan is to do several runs of the stairs and then run TWO miles around the lake. I’m so sore I can hardly move… I might need to incorporate more REST days in my plan hahaha.

Today will have been 7 days since I started using the Hal Higdon’s Half Marathon Training Program, and I’m feeling great. I spread it out over six months instead of three because I wanted to start training for the half-marathon right away… so I know as long as I keep motivated, we’ll do great!

Neptunes Fest 8K

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Since Regent University is sponsering the Neptunes Fest in VIrginia Beach this fall, they are kind enough to offer free registration to employees! As soon as I got the information, I popped out of my chair last Thursday and RACED to the Human Resources to sign up. Running in these races is so expensive, so a free race is a HUGE blessing… especially with just getting married. We’d run in a race every weekend if we could afford it! :)

I’m really going to enjoy running in this race with all the other Regent people being there. There is nothing like having people that you know in the crowd to cheer you on, and since I don’t have family here or a friend base, I’ve never really had a cheering squad!

This is my photo from last year, I finished in 55 min (not the official time… just the time recorded on my super sweet run keeper app), and I’m determined to do better! When I ran the 8K in March for the Shamrock, I did it in 50min, which is better, so I’m pretty sure with my extra training for my half-marathon, I’ll be able to do it in 45 minutes. Putting that down on my blog and having that as a goal will do a lot to make sure that I do it!

I know I can do it… and I’ll be so proud knowing my time was the best I’ve done so far!

his very first look

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He finally was in place. I’d been waiting for the guys to drive up for almost an hour, and Joel started taking a few pictures of just me (shown here)… and we had a blast. So now that Tyler was in place, I snuck up behind him and gave him a hug. Then he turned around and gave me the biggest smile ever! He gasped when he first saw me (I like to think it’s because I looked so gorgeous), and gave me a huge hug!

He told me over and over again, “you look soooo beautiful” (the emphasis on the soooo is to mock my accent), and we laughed over and over again because we were so excited! Ever since we met the previous November, we’d been crazy about each other and it seemed like we’d known each other forever.  I don’t know who was more excited, Tyler or I. We’d both been ecstatic to finally get married… even though we’d only been together for nine months, it had been one of the most craziest seasons of my life. We were both so happy to FINALLY get to have our wedding official and start our forever!

first four mile run

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It’s not my first four mile run EVER…. but it is since our wedding and I got fat and out of shape. Tyler, ofcourse, was an eager beaver and wanted to run six or seven miles, and I was shooting daggers in his back the whole time. He was bounding across the streets having the time of his life, and I was dying in the back seat. I don’t know if it could be counted as a real run because it took me 55 minutes to do it. We spent a lot of time talking when we were taking breaks though :) It’s really not fair how easily running comes to him, but I’m going to get better, as long as I’m disciplined. I’m so very proud of myself, having kept on schedule for the last four days. Tomorrow is my easy three mile run, and I’m excited to try get it done in 35 minutes.