Category Archives: love

Motivated to Run

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I had a question from one of my friends on Facebook, and thought I’d tackle it on here!  One of my friends Ashley asked:

How do you stay motivated to run? It seems like I am always starting, run for a few weeks and then I stop.

We are all motivated to run for different reasons. Some of us run to clear our minds or get out of the house and others run to lose weight or other athletic reasons. Many enter races in order to have events to train for, and others are motivated to simply run daily. I can’t tell you how to be motivated or how to fit it in because I don’t know all the details of your life, but I can let you know what works for me.

I love entering races with people. I have a few friends who are runners and they inspire me to keep training, and to get those long runs that must be completed on the weekends. Sometimes we even go out together to make sure we get the 10 miler run done in order to prepare for a race. It’s easy for me to get the long runs in, but a 2 hour run on Saturday with homework crushing me isn’t always the most motivating. So entering races with friends keeps me on track!

My whole life is written out in my planner. I’m not a control freak as much as I can’t remember when and where I’m supposed to be, what’s due, and when I’m supposed to go grocery shopping. So I write in my runs, my mileage, and treat it like everything else in my planner. Mandatory. When I finish, I enter them into my Runkeeper App, and track my total mileage for the month. I’ve been averaging 50 miles of running/month since February, which is great for me! Finally, I celebrate all the small successes and take pride in my runs.

As much as I like running with people, it’s hard for me to match their pace, so I usually run alone. I still go to running groups, and still meet up with my girlfriends, but we usually end up splitting up so we can all meet our running goals. It depends how you like to run, but sharing my running goals with a running community has been the best motivator of all!

I also thought I’d share some of my blogger friends blogs I stalk, since they’ve really motivated me to run: Running in Heels, My Pinky Toes, and of course LuluLemon.

If you have questions for me, feel free to put them in the comments section or post them on my Facebook wall. I’d love to do some research and respond in a blog!

Skinny Dip

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I’m taking some pretty rough classes this summer, and wish I woulda been smart enough to take the summer off. I’m really burnt out as far as school/writing/thinking/saying smart things is concerned, so don’t expect a lot. The only thing that is keeping my sane is my wonderful husband and running!

Sunday morning, before heading out for church I did a wonderful 5 mile run, which is the farthest I’ve run since my 1/2 marathon. When I’m running, I feel like I can do anything. I’m motivated. I feel disciplined. I feel strong.

My school doesn’t make me feel that way right now. So to help me cope, I’ve been eat a lot of chocolate. And drinking hot chocolate.

And skinny dip.

Went to skinny dip. Stalked puppies

On SATURDAY we took Nalla (my friends puppy. We don’t have one. yet.) to skinny dip, and after talking to a staff there who fell in love with Nalla and wanted to talk to her, shake her hand, and just hang out in the general cute puppy vicinity, she informed us that they sell little ‘doggy dips’.

You are kidding me, right?

Nope. I’ve never seen Nalla get so excited! She started chewing that ice cream… it was so cute! Awwww! This diversion was definitely worth skipping an hour of crying-over-algebra-textbooks studying.

Back from Vacation!

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Just came back from the best vacation ever! Tyler’s family is much more relaxed on vacation than my family was, so it was an adjustment… and I had to FORCE myself to slow down! We didn’t even have Internet.  Even though it was more relaxed than what my family does, we still did a lot of stuff, and kayaking was one of them! We went twice last week, and I got stuck a couple times because the water was so low- AND I almost died getting stuck over a water fall with rocks jutting out at the bottom! Don’t worry; we only had class 1 rapids on the first two miles, and the rest was pretty calm. :)

Since we were nestled in the mountains in the middle of nowhere, there were plenty of hills to train on. Not that I’m actually training for anything right now, but I can pretend. :)   I was seriously sore every day that I ran. I did a couple four-mile runs, but on those mountain trails, it felt like twice that! It was so awesome to run on such gorgeous trails.Williamsburg Run for the Dream

I did terrible on not eating sugar during our trip, and I’m going to have to pay for it for a couple days. So back to the strict diet from here on in! :) How are your summer fitness goals coming along? What do you find the hardest to maintain during the warmer months?

Being Intentional

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It’s so easy, for example, to go on vacation and throw your entire diet (of healthy eating) and training schedule out the window, only to have to start back up from square one when you get back (Thank you Christmas break!).

Spring break is coming up for some people (does that mean anything anymore that I’m not in grade 7?) and Easter (the 3rd best chocolate holiday in the WORLD), which is desperately trying to sabatoge my training schedule like Christmas. In case you need a kick in the butt, try out the ever eipc Biggest Loser Trainers Bob’s Vacation Workout.

IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! WE ONLY HAVE EXACTLY 52 DAYS to get in the BEST shape we’ve ever been in and race on the hilly track for 13.1 miles! 

We’ve using Hal Higdons 1/2 marathon training Schedule: Novice 2 as our coach and the most amazing weather =) I’m enjoying this training plan because we just ran a 1/2 marathon last week, and it’s giving us a bit of a break, allowing us time to work back up to 13 miles. I’m working this running thing in-between my work schedule, school, and being around for my husband. It’s a lot, but thankfully he’s running with me =)

It’s about being intentional about your goals. Whether on vacation, or just getting caught up in life, be intentional about getting where you want to be. Dreams without deadlines and plans of actions are just… dreams.

I’m probably going to fall slightly short of my 60 miles/March goal, but I’m proud of all the progress I’ve made AND for setting a new PR: Running 13.1 miles!! I’m still so proud of myself!

Ps. if you are at all enjoying my posts, please leave a little love (aka: comment on my BLOG people! I know your reading it!!)

Like Minded Friends

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 ”Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition, it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly, be that kind of a friend for your friends.”

- Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer; most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

The world is full of people that tear you down, but one thing that I’ve learned in the past year is to invest in the relationships that build me up. Sometimes I feel guilty because this means that I’m not taking the time for people that I feel like I should be investing into, but then I remember the way they’ve torn me down and tried to “ belittle [my] ambitions”.

And this makes me sad. I want to share the joys of my present life with those who’ve shared my life with my in the past,  but that’s just not possible. I want to share my successes and growth, but that’s simply not in the cards right now.

And I’m sure I’m not the only one. It’s time to cleanse our lives from negative people. These are the only things I’m allowing in my life:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things” (Phil 4:8 New International Version).

So today I choose to focus on the truth of who I am. Someone who is strong and determined. Someone who is choosing positive people in my life, and surrounding myself with purity, things that are lovely, and excellence.

I do this because I want to be strong, healthy and happy.

SHAMROCK RACE!

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I woke up Sunday morning after about 2.5 hrs of sleep because there were gun shots(yes, gun shots) outside our apartment all night. I almost didn’t run in the race because I woke up feeling miserable, but Tyler was so encoraging and supportive, and helped me decide to run! (thanks hunny!)

My goal was to run the first six miles, and then run/walk the rest of the miles because my training had gone so poorly.

Parking for any Boardwalk race is a mess, and yesterday was no exception. The irony of parking in a bank parking lot in the handicap space while running a half marathon kept me smiling until the start! For the first couple miles, Tyler and I were smiling at each other in sheer happiness of being able to run this race.

Because, exactly one year ago, after the Shamrock race (we were running 8k’s back then) he took me to Fort Story and proposed. It was so precious and one of the happiest days of my life!

Back to the race. It was so glorious to run by Fort Story and remember our proposal exactly one year ago… and we actually ran RIGHT by the Lighthouse (on mile 8) that we visted the day he proposed!  The terrain was wonderful, we consistantly run on the boardwalk, so we were used to the route. While we were on base, running by the lighthouse, there was this mommy with two little kids in her stroller that allowed her kids to get out and RUN along side her! This was the most adorable site ever, and I was laughing for the remainder of the mile :) I was truly inspired to keep running. And I did keep running! At each mile marker, I decided to run that mile, and walk the rest. Until I got to mile 11, and then decided I was going to run the WHOLE thing! I’m so glad I did, and I’m so proud of myself!

I set my all time Personal Record yesterday. Not because I did great time, but because this was the FIRST TIME I’D EVER RUN 13.1 MILES! Setting my next PR is going to be easy since I really took it slow and ran it at 11:21 minute miles (according to my tracker), and 11:49 according to the race timer. They are different because I turned off my tracker during our washroom break… because I wanted to know our exact running time.

Seriously, I’ve never been prouder of myself in my whole life. I never thought I’d be able to run STRAIGHT for 13.1 miles, and I DID! I crossed the finish line, strong and feeling good. I’ve never been happier to stop running!

Thinspiration

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For all those avid pinterest-ers and bloggers out there, thinspiration is a huge internet trend. As someone who struggled with an extremely unhealthy view of food and exercise, this is maddening. For all those who have no clue what I’m talking about, it’s basically surfing through pictures of women who are starving themselves or working out until their bodies are literally skin and bones. These women are emaciated with visibly protruding bones. If you can’t count the ribs and see the hip bones protruding, they aren’t ‘thin’ enough. This alarming trend promotes looking at thin celebrities through visual in order to be inspired to continue to lose weight.  
“These sites are very, very dangerous,” said Lynn S. Grefe, MA, president and chief executive officer of the National Eating Disorders Association. “Eating disorders are biologically based psychiatric illnesses, and these sites promote being sick and staying sick … bottom line, they delay treatment.”

Girls, these women are killing themselves. They are not beautiful; they are haunted by self-hatred… because they are unable to accept themselves for who they are.
This blog isn’t to inspire people to be ‘thin’, but to be healthy. If your healthy weight is 150lbs, then be comfortable with that. Don’t worry about losing weight, be concerned about eating balanced meals. Don’t throw your energy into counting calories, throw your energy into a 30 minute walk or run. Love your body, and take care of it. And please, friends, don’t look to pictures of emaciated women to motive you to work out. Loving ourselves should be enough to inspire us to take care of our bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

MACE

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Last weekend, my husband Tyler bought me MACE to take along on my runs. This might not seem like a fabulous gift to you, but this meant the world to me. This means I can go running late at night in sketchy neighborhoods… JUST KIDDING!! I think every girl should carry one of these when they are running, I just never got down to the sporting goods store to purchase one (Thank you Dicks)!

 

I’m even tempted to Mace the cars that almost hit me. It probably wouldn’t do any good!

5 miler weekend

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So I’m done with my excuses (except for the one about my finals next week… Still holding onto that one) and I’m hitting the road. Hard. Well, hard-ish. Since buying these amazing new running shoes (that are very veeeeery stiff) I’ve been working on breaking them in. And today, after like a month, I’m back up to 5 miles. With two blisters on each arch :( . It felt amazing to be out there for almost an hour, listening to music, and I seriously couldn’t stop smiling. I mean, its been more than a week since an outdoor run… I was free!! At about mile 3.5, a lady in her car gave me the strangest look because I was smiling so big!

Tomorrow, the hubs and I are going to run some trails and hopefully hit that 5 mile mark, again. I figure there is no way I can run 10 at once at this point, I may as well get it in separately.

Goal: 5 miles again tomorrow.

Goal: log 40 miles this month (at 20 miles so far).

This shamrock 1/2 marathon is going to kick my butt, but I’m not going to give up. Not ever going to give up!

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Happy Monday!

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I recently found this mantra on facebook, and fell in love with it. I’m often accused of overdressing. I LOVE pink… clothes, nail polish, shoes, scarves, shirts, and note books.

Obviously laughing is much more fun than running, and it burns a heck of a lot of calories!

Kissing makes me the happiest girl in the world, and I beleive it’s the best medicine for our marriage :)

A pretty girl turns BEAUTIFUL when she laughes, so I’m going to try laugh at everything… jokes, myself…

And this isn’t on the list, but I believe you can get whatever you want with a heck-of-a-lot of work, and I’m not afraid to step up to the plate and go get it! I’m determined to be strong when everything seems to be going wrong, and see the good in it. God’s in control and he won’t let anything happen to us outside of his plan.

Hope this makes you smile like it did to me, and make your day a little better!