A Cleansing Recap

Well, we did it! 🙂  We survived our 10 day cleanse!  This was really Teal’s 3rd time doing the Advocare cleanse since as we mentioned before she is a distributor for it.  A few years back a teacher colleague recruited a bunch of people to participate in the cleanse and that’s ultimately where Teal got started with Advocare.  If you’d like to purchase any Advocare products you can through Teal’s website.

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There is any additional Advocare product called Spark Energy Drink that is a recommended part of the cleanse that we left off.  As far as the pills and what not go with the cleanse it is broken up into 3 days, 4 days and 3 days.  You start your first 3 days by drinking a fiber drink each morning, take 4 to 6 of the OmegaPlex pills with your dinner and a packet of the Herbal Cleanse tablets at bedtime. For the next 4 days, wake up and take a packet of Probiotic Restore pills, take 4 to 6 OmegaPlex pills with your dinner and packet of Herbal Cleanse tablets at bedtime.  The last 3 days of the cleanse consist of the fiber drink in the morning, 4 to 6 OmegaPlex pills with your dinner and packet of the Herbal Cleanse tablets at bedtime.

Part of why we both wanted to do this cleanse was just to jumpstart back into eating right – you know kick off 2012 the right way!  It was kind of rough combination of coming off marathon training and then three weeks later Christmas where it’s too easy to eat and drink too much, so we were both ready for a fresh start.

A lot of people asked what are you allowed to eat on this cleanse?  Well, you are allowed to eat a lot of clean food!  You can eat fruits, veggies, proteins, and clean carbs.  So if you are a carboholic then there is a bit of a transition for you, but ultimately you eat in a way that you really should be eating regularly.  We both ate about 5 meals a day and here’s an example of the plan Teal mainly stuck with throughout:

Beth recruited two people she is around the most to also participate in the cleanse – her fiance, Brent and her sister, Kate.  It was definitely nice having other people who were doing the cleanse and to stay strong in not drinking and not eating anything that wasn’t on the list of approved food.  So when it came time to eat dinner with Brent’s family at Cheesecake Factory for his sister’s Birthday it was easier to stay strong in clean choices together than alone!

One thing to be said about the cleanse and working out – Advocare does recommend that you workout every day while participating in the cleanse but in your first five days you might want to keep from pushing yourself as hard as you would like because you might experience light headedness.  As your body adjusts to the difference in eating it will begin to adjust to your normal workout routine as well.

For Beth one aspect of the cleanse she really enjoyed was finding some healthy food options that are realistic to carry over past the cleanse.  One such item that can be prepared for the whole week would be chicken salad using chicken boiled in chicken broth with whatever seasoning you’d like, bell pepper, celery and Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil (reduced fat).

Overall, all four of us that participated in the cleanse feel better and it doesn’t hurt that all of us combined together lost a total of 32.5 pounds!  Teal dropped 5.5 pounds and Beth dropped 9 pounds.  Thanks to Kate and Brent for participating too and hope that the 9 pound drop each was well worth those ten days!  The cleanse is recommended every 90 days so in April you might hear about us cleansing again! 🙂

Have you done a cleanse before?  What keeps you going  back to cleansing? Or what keeps you from participating in a cleanse?

13 Things Friday

In honor of Friday the 13th here are our thirteen things:

1.  Today is our LAST day of the Advocare cleanse! YAY!! Look for a recap next week.

2.  Two weeks from today we leave for Austin for our weekend of volunteering for the 3M Half Marathon. Our first volunteering experience together AND we can’t wait to meet Courtney & Luke…you know IRL!

3.  Tomorrow night we have a wine dinner at Beth’s house with friends both old and new – we can’t wait!

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4.  This week Beth put a big check mark next to “pick Bridesmaid dresses” on her wedding to do list.  Extra bonus that the 4 BMs so far are happy with the dresses!

5.  In 4 weeks, Teal & Michael will be living alone for the first time in the history of their marriage. 🙂 No more roommates!

6.  Six weeks until we leave for our next big race weekend – Princess Half at Disney World!!!

7.  Since this month started Teal has attended 5 yoga classes and Beth has attended 10 yoga classes.  Will we meet our goals??

8.  Teal’s last semester of grad school starts Monday.

9.  We received some Celliant samples in the mail this week that we are anxious to try out!

10.  Teal is going to the doctor on Monday for her foot! Keep your fingers crossed for her pleeease!

11.  We got another NEW button on our blog! You can now buy Go Sport ID’s through us just by clicking the link on the right hand side of our blogy blog!

12.  We each have a secret goal of learning to swim in 2012 – you know as in be better swimmers because we know the absolute basics of swimming i.e. doggie paddling 😉

13.  We are not really superstitious.

13.1  Are you superstitious?  What race superstitions do you have?

Up’s & Down’s & Johnny to the Rescue

A few weeks ago you heard from Teal on her lifestyle changes that got her to the weight she is right now.  So I guess it would be my turn. 🙂  Probably like any girl I have my own body image issues, but I tend to blame the private school I attend on that to some degree.  It seemed like all the girls in my grade were skinny little stick figures and well there’s really no way my body can/will resemble that.  I have hips! Ha, they aren’t going anywhere and I’m still learning to love them.  With that said I had weight gains in typical points of my life.  I started college – hello ten pounds!

I spent two summers (2002 & 2003) in college working at a family camp as a counselor and a life guard.  We were SO active that the pounds just melted off.  Then I had a year in college which where I *think* I attempted to be apart of as many organizations as possible, hold positions in some of them and still be a full time student.  I look back at that year and still don’t understand how I survived it. Ha, but with that busyness came absolutely NO time where I was working out.  The pounds came creeping back.

Left: August 2004 Right: May 2006

My last year in college I had a lighter load than my previous years as I spent the majority of each week in a class room observing and/or teaching.  Because of that I spent little time in an actual classroom where I was the student and had homework to turn in.  The beginning of that last year I had a break up with my boyfriend and in about a week lost 10 pounds which was about what I’d put on in that previous busy, busy year.  Once I dropped those 10 pounds I didn’t want to put them back on, so I picked back up with my running.  Most days you could find me up on the 3rd floor of the Rec Center putting in 3 miles on the track and depending on the weather out running the streets of College Station.

Cancun Girls Trip in 2006 (with Teal) and this is literally the only swimsuit picture I have no qualms showing to anyone

When I moved back to Dallas the summer of 2006 I was determined to stay fit, so I joined a gym.  And just as quickly as I signed up for a 3 year contract I’d stopped going. 🙂  I hated that gym.  I won’t discuss what gym it is but this particular location I hated going in there after awhile I just realized the gym itself  was dark and dingy and just didn’t make me want to be in there.  I managed to stay at my ideal weight for quite awhile and it wasn’t until some of my friends and I had the brilliant idea in early 2007 of starting a weekly happy hour that the pounds started coming back.  In reality I had a combination of weekly happy hour and new relationship weight coming on. Well, in December 2006, a new gym had just opened up RIGHT by my house.  I went and toured it, liked what I saw and signed up with them!

So for 2.5 years I’d be paying for two gym memberships until my contract ran up with the first one.  Am I made of money? No, but I thought my health was important enough to sign up at a gym where I would actually go and be active even if it meant sacrificing somewhere else each month to cover the cost of the gym I did not go to.  I can still hear my cousin, who owns a few gyms, saying “You signed a contract with a gym? What were you thinking?

One day I decided I’d try a spin class – I’d been to one in college taught by a friend, but before I knew it I was going to spin class every time Angie was teaching! I loved her personality, her music selection and enthusiasm to get us all working hard!  Angie’s husband singing and dancing around on the spin bike was just an added bonus to the hour workout.

After a class somewhere in late August or early September of 2007 Angie approached me and offered me a chance to go workout with her husband for free in one of his group training classes.  I was still in a rut with the weight I’d gained that year from happy hour and the new relationship that I was happy to take the opportunity.  So off I went that week either on a Tuesday or Thursday morning to workout with a group of ladies I’d never met before at 6:00 a.m.

Oh my gosh, we did so many lunges that morning – lunges with weights, now switch weights with the person behind you and lunge, walking lunges….lunges, lunges, lunges!  I am not sure I have ever been so sore from a workout in my life!

Then I was sold on working out with Johnny and I have been ever since that day!  See I was working out with other women doing weights with some cardio mixed in, and because it’s group you aren’t paying $75+ for a personal trainer although he does do personal training as well. 🙂  For the first year of working out with Johnny he was renting space from a gymnastic center and then he got his very own place just down the street in August of 2008.

Have you ever been to the Coppell location of Run On!, well, if you have then you’ve been next door to Johnny’s…more specifically Johnny’s Health & Fitness!  Actually right before Christmas JHF moved to the bigger space next door to help with their growing needs as a gym, so you can now find them two doors down from Run on! You can see me there pretty much every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 6:00 – 7:00 a.m.

Johnny & Angie really came into my life RIGHT when I was needing someone to help me get the extra pounds off.  Johnny discussed my eating habits and nutrition with me.  Ultimately I started drinking Premier Nutrition protein shakes on his recommendation, and I also incorporated a digestive enzyme pill into my everyday life based off of one of his recommendations.  What I can appreciate about Johnny’s recommendations is that if he wouldn’t do it, he’s not going to try and convince you to do it!  He gives it to you straight.  That’s also the approach he takes with his clients when he sees them slacking on their diet or not getting in the cardio outside of working out with him.  He gives it to you straight in this nice balance of here is the truth but not being a jerk about it.

(read more about Digest Plus here and Premier Nutrition Protein shakes here)

At this point I don’t remember how long into my training with Johnny it was that I had taken 12 pounds off.  Not only has he helped me keep my weight under control, but he’s also been a great resource to me as well with all of my running!  Because I know that he really wants to see each of his clients be the best that they can be!

I would be completely devastated if I were to move and/or no longer be able to workout with Johnny.  In my opinion truly good, dedicated trainers are hard to come by!  It’s also my opinion that the majority of trainers at big chain gyms are rarely going to push you the way Johnny pushes me and every single one of his clients.  I feel like I can say this based on trying out a workout with one of the trainers at my big chain gym I go to for spin class and other cardio machines.  Plus I know that for me having a personal trainer is just not in my budget so having a place where I can do group training is doable!

Johnny & me

I’ve made some great friends from my workout group and couldn’t even imagine where I would be right now if I did not have Johnny in my life!  If you live in the Coppell/Lewisville/Flower Mound area and are looking for a trainer check out Johnny’s Health & Fitness! I drive 15 minutes from Plano to workout with him.  I know other clients of his that drive from Dallas proper, Sasche and other places I don’t even know about to workout with Johnny. If you are interested in trying out a training class with Johnny get in touch with me!

Or you can check out his website here.

Follow Johnny on twitter.

Or like him on Facebook!

New Things Friday!

Happy Friday!! Well, we got a NEW header!  All thanks to Beth’s sister, Kate!!  What do you think??

Also, did you happen to notice earlier this week the appearance of a new button on our blog?? Right around this area —–>

 

We are SO happy to be able to tell you that we are ZOOMA Connectors for the 2012 Texas event which will be held in Austin on March 31, 2012!!

 

 

What is ZOOMA you ask? Well, it is a race series designed for women!  We all love girls weekends, right?  [well, all of us females at least :)]  ZOOMA has basically gone and created a girls weekend for runners!  You run your race and afterwards at the after party expo you are pampered with wine, massages, demos and shopping!  What else is cool about running their half marathon is each finisher gets an exclusively-designed piece of jewelry! We absolutely love the theme of the ZOOMA events:

run. laugh. celebrate.

The ZOOMA race series is really all about promoting a healthy & active lifestyle!  They really embrace that by finding Ambassadors in each city where a race is held to help train and inspire runners.  Their big kick off event for runners and Ambassadors to meet is actually tomorrow morning at the Luke’s Locker on Sandra Muraida Way, so if you are in Austin and want to participate go here to RSVP to the event!  There are a number of links on their site to inspire you and your training or just help you get started!

Ok, so we have really promoted this whole it’s a girls weekend aspect of the ZOOMA event, it really is just one big girls weekend, BUT men are welcome too!  So ladies if you want to run this race and your husband/significant other/brother/etc. is looking for a race to run too, well, bring him with you!

Registration is open NOW for the Austin, Texas event on March 31, 2012 and if you sign up before January 7, 2012 [tomorrow] you will beat the price increase!  The two of us will be heading down to Austin and running the half marathon portion of the event, so come and join us!

Sign up today and let us know that we will see you out there! 🙂

If you are one of our readers outside of the great state of Texas be sure to checkout the other 4 events in the ZOOMA race series and plan to make one of those!

Atlanta – April 22, 2012

Annapolis – June 2, 2012

Cape Cod – September 22, 2012

Great Lakes– October 20, 2012

Other Parts of New Year’s Weekend

Well, Thursday isn’t totally a weekend day, but it is pre-Friday so we let’s just go ahead and include our day trip to College Station! You might remember from last week the arrival of baby Eliza, well, we took a road trip to meet her and see the new parents, Rebekah & Zac!

Eliza is an absolutely adorable, teeny tiny little girl! Congrats again to Rebekah & Zac! She’s lucky to have the two of you!

Friday Beth spent the afternoon with her sister and cousins for their annual Meatyball day! All of them are a quarter Swedish and get together every year to help Aunt Cindy make a big batch of her mother’s Swedish Meatball receipe and then have a feast!

Cousins! - Chase, Beth, Brice & Kate

Teal was one productive lady – she prepared an entire month’s worth of breakfast options to freeze and ready to go whenever she needs them! She made burritos full of egg whites, green bell pepper, a can of diced tomatoes & onions on flat outs and egg white, mushroom & spinach quiches.

Saturday after the first day of the New Years Double we went and watched a free screening of The Spirit of the Marathon thanks to Cinemark Allen who was one of the sponsors of the New Years Double race! A certain number of tickets were available to NYD runners and one guest per runner, so we jumped on the tickets and brought Michael and Brent along with us.

Ironically enough when we went to google map on our phone how to get to the theater this was the distance –

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Should we have just run there?? Ha

If you have not seen or even heard about this movie – it follows the story of 6 people who will all be running the 2005 Chicago Marathon. They range from first time marathoners to Olympic athletes, and it is definitely an inspiring film to watch! The movie is available for purchase on it’s website, DVD or streaming on Netflix or Hulu Plus. After the movie the four of us headed to Maggiano’s to enjoy a nice New Year’s Eve dinner and fill up on some carbs for the next day’s race! And maybe a glass of wine too. *gasp* 🙂 Pretty sure neither one of us lasted until midnight to officially ring in the New Year. Big thank you again to Michael & Brent for putting up with our low key NYE this year!

The New Years Double race allowed us to meet quite a few people we find ourselves chatting with on twitter regularly….though there were still some we missed! 🙁 Hopefully we can change that at another race though!

After the second day of the race we went out with some running friends to feast on dim sum! Sooo good and we definitely enjoyed the company! Looking forward to doing it again soon! 🙂

New Year’s Double – Day Two

The two days of racing somewhat blend together for us – perhaps we should have written some notes down after each day to help us out?  We are sure you wouldn’t appreciate a recap that says “It was fun!”  It would be the truth though! 🙂

New Year’s Day morning we headed out to the race course just the two of us as we are awesome and let Michael & Brent sleep in!  We might have done a slightly better job of eating breakfast before today’s race, but maybe just slightly. Haha.  When we got to Celebration Park we decided to sit in the car for as long as possible!  Ever since White Rock Mary Teal doesn’t like to be cold if she doesn’t have to be and Beth decided on an outfit warm enough for running not for hanging out waiting to run and no throw away items.

Teal’s friend Cynthia was running the half marathon relay this day and it was her text messages asking us where we were that finally got us out of the car!  We quickly found Cynthia and were able to chat some before the race started, and then found Heidi & Brian at Corral B!  Before we knew it we were starting the race!

Teal:  So if you think about how low my expectations were in terms of running for day 1 they were even lower for day 2. My foot (the bad one) was very tender and was even more tender on the outside because I ran on it for 13 miles the day before. I was thinking – “good lord, how much more can your poor little pinky toe take?” I had called Cynthia the day before and asked her what leg of the relay she was running because really my goal was to run the first leg with her to gauge pain, and then walk the second if need be. I had iced like crazy and stretched a ton the night before. My body felt much better than I had expected but still sore.

Beth:  Almost immediately after we got home from Day 1, I was on my way to Run On to get a new pair of shoes!  I refused to wear my tainted marathon shoes again and knew I had pain that wouldn’t be there had I already gotten a new pair of shoes.  So I was ready to go for Day 2’s race and really wanting to make sure I ran the whole thing again – no walking!

Teal:  Miles 1-3: I started in corral C with Cynthia, Beth and Heidi went out with Corral B and my running buddy from day 1, Brian, ran back with some other friends of ours. In my head I was like—“ boo, I really won’t make the second half because I will be alone.”  The first 3 miles were slow but not bad. Cynthia and I stayed together and I kind of just played with my angling on my foot to control any pain. My knee on the left was sore, but not too bad and was shockingly for once staying in place!

Beth:  I had my headphones with me today! Since I was so messed up with the mileage the day before I wanted to be sure and have periodic updates, but then sometimes I wouldn’t even fully listen to them.  🙂 Heidi and I got started together and our outfits matched just a whee bit this day!  We had some chatter going again, saw a lot of people out there again and were sure to cheer them on as well!  Seriously the seeing of other running friends out there was really the best part even though you are only passing them for a few seconds.

Thank you to Mama C for this picture out on the course!

Teal: Mile 3-6: Brian caught up to us! YES! I knew I had 3 more to go with Cynthia and when he caught up to us I felt better about the rest of the race. If he was going to keep running I could keep running. I started to feel tired and not in the mood to run anymore (even though I never really was in the first place) and 3-6 were actually pretty draining. It was at the point that I was like- You need to change your attitude because you will be out here for 9ish more miles whether you like it or not. I started encouraging Cynthia (not that she really needed it- she was doing great) and cheering on others, and thanking spectators, and chatting with Brian!

Beth:  There was a sign out by the turnaround that said “Oh, Shut up, Princess! No one ever drowned in sweat!” that I absolutely loved and it got me excited because Teal, Heidi, Brian and I will all be out in Orlando next month for the Princess Half.  This race weekend seemed like a glimpse of the fun the four of us will have out at that race!  It was about this time we’d have our first opportunity to see Teal & Brian, and Heidi & I were both anxious to see how they were doing.  I just wanted to make sure Teal was ok and that she wasn’t in any horrible foot or knee pain.  When we saw them Teal was all smiles, so I felt confident that she was OK out there and was glad she and Brian were running together again!

Teal: 6.55-10: I left Cynthia here at the relay exchange and began the second loop with Brian. This stretch was not wonderful mind wise but we both basically said the pace was ok and manageable and that we weren’t going to walk. I told Brian that I was scared to lock up my knee and walking would basically mean I wouldn’t start again. We powered through and made the last loop for what we knew was just 3 miles left. We saw Beth and Heidi around here and knew at this point that they had to have been hauling! We cheered them on and just kept smiling to keep our moods up and not let the pain and annoyance of running so slow get to us!

Beth: After Heidi and I finished our first loop I knew we were on pace to make it under 2:10.  Before day 1 of New Year’s Double the DRC Half had been my slowest half, mainly because it was treated as a training, and I made up my mind right then and there that I wasn’t going to let day 2 be my slowest or next in line for slowest half.  At somewhere around mile 8 I was huuungry! So I got out one of my GU’s and fueled up which then resulted in me getting my second wind.  Just the push I need to guarantee that sub 2:10 time for the day!  One thing that has not been mentioned yet is the wind!  It was out there and I guess making up for it’s lack of an appearance on New Year’s Eve.  One of the main parts the wind really got to me was in mile 12 (or 6 if you were on the first loop) the ONLY thing that made up for it was the volunteer that was standing right about the mile 19th sign (I just mentioned far too many different numbers of miles).  That was my fourth time to pass her that day and I finally said to her “you are the best cheerleader! Thank you!”  Just as I said it a lady come out for another loop responded with “she really is!”  She pushed me through, then the man I passed right before the 13 mile marker pushed me through, and then I got that awesome runner’s high from sprinting once I rounded the last corner.  I also passed another guy in the small bit of course left after the last corner. 🙂

Teal: 10-13.1: I looked at Brian and was like “we eat 3 miles for breakfast” this is nothing. I am pretty sure I stole those words from our friend, Courtney. Three is nothing! We got around to 11.5, and I of course, grabbed some gummy bears again which made me super happy. The last 1.5 was fast. We talked ourselves up and just kept one foot in front of the other. We both crossed that finish line having fully run BOTH days! We high fived and that was that!

It’s really weird because both of us are in no way disappointed. We ran the 2 slowest half marathons ever, but were so happy at the end! This weekend was so much fun and was so empowering!  Despite being slower than we both are use to and a lot of pain for Teal,who saw what her body was capable of, didn’t walk at all, and kept a good attitude. We were both shocked that not much endurance was lost having only run 8 miles for Teal and 14.3 miles for Beth since White Rock.  Overall just proud of both of us and also feel super blessed that we were able to run with Brian & Heidi!

Results

Teal: 2:25:53

Beth: 2:06:41

The medal for day 2

You put the two pieces together in the challenge plate and this is the complete New Year's Double medal

After the race on New Year’s Eve we didn’t really get to stick around and watch some of our friends running the marathon finish, so we made sure we’d get to see them on this day!  We watched Ninja complete his 2nd marathon in 24 hours and in the top 15 of finishers which earned him some fancy champagne glasses!  We got to see Lesley J. out there with her Racing It Off ladies! Y’all looked awesome!

Overall it was an awesome racing weekend for us!  We had so much fun being at an awesome race amongst so many running friends!

New Year’s Double – Day One

Well, the day finally arrived for our first ever double race weekend! Ok, we might have done a 5k and a half marathon relay in the same weekend back in March, but that doesn’t compare to back to back half marathon.

As we mentioned before, Michael & Brent were both coming out with us for this day of the race.  We showed up to the race relatively unprepared.  Neither of us had done a good job of having a good breakfast, Teal didn’t have any food for during the race and we both had forgotten gloves.  We stood around talking to running buddies until the last minute when we decided maybe we should go ahead and get in our corral.

Teal keeping warm before the race got started

Teal: I had no idea how day one of this weekend would go and really had very little expectations of anything good happening.  Being relatively new to running I had no idea how fast or easily endurance for a half marathon is lost and how well my other types of cardio had kept up my endurance.  I really didn’t know if this would be a holy mess of walking or not.

Beth:  I had no idea what to expect for this weekend.  I’d run a grand total of 14.3 miles since the marathon.  Most of the runs were on the treadmill and I kept noticing a pain in my foot which played a major role in my lack of running.  I just wanted to complete day one without walking at all.

Teal:  Prior to the race we had met up with Brian & Heidi and had discussed running together.  For the first few miles of the race all four of us did and kept up a pace faster than I had expected.  The running was not coming as easy as before, but it was not bad.  My foot was definitely feeling the pounding and I compensated by running more to the outside.  Not really a good thing, but it worked for that time.  Brian and I were basically running side by side behind Beth and Heidi because on the course you couldn’t run more than two people wide.  We chatted with them, waved at all the runners we knew and seriously had a good time.  We started to lose ground between Beth and Heidi and decided to try and keep them in our sight, but that ended up failing.  The race was entertaining based on the simple fact that we knew so many people out there.  It passed time to look for runners we knew and cheer them on.  The out & back loop made it super easy to see people three and four times.

Thanks to Michael for this picture! Brian & Teal on their way back in from their first loop

Beth:  Just as we got started I realized I had left my headphones in my fleece that I’d passed off to Brent.  So of course as we run off I yell that too him. 🙂 Before we even made it a half mile I had to stop and go the bathroom so he found me as I was exiting and handed off my headphones to me.  But in that short period of time I figured if we were running with Heidi and Brian I would not really need my headphones at all.  After my pit stop I caught up to the three of them to carry on!  Thanks to Heidi’s veerry colorful outfits it wasn’t hard to find them again.  Once I had my headphones in my hand I knew I wouldn’t actually end up using them at all.  Since the course was a loop there were people to see out there and had my running buddies with me to chat with!

Teal:  We hung back and ended up getting right in front of these two guys from Rockwall who seriously pushed our pace.  We ended on average at a 10:30ish pace, but when we ran with these guys it was about 10 minutes or better.  They ran right on our heels, which has never happened to me before it and it kind of made me nervous.  I couldn’t decide if they wanted to pass us or not.  They just kept talking to us about running and all the races they had been at and what not.  At one point the guy was like “this is a good pace” and I started to feel more comfortable about the face that that pace was where they wanted to stay.  We slowed a little because I felt less pressure now and then they ended up passing us just to wind up back behind us again!  Clearly they were determined to hang and chat.  Oh, and if you haven’t noticed there was a lot of chatting in this race.  Way more than ever before.  I even only ran with one ear phone in and really never listened except to get mileage updates (I kept losing track of the mileage though).  This made time fly and I really didn’t feel much during all of the stories.  By the time we stopped talking with them we were already around mile 9 or 10.  In my head I was like – Really? We are here already, I’m not totally dead, haven’t walked and all the pain is manageable! Score!

On the back part of the out & back course! Photo courteousy of Lesley J. also known as @RacingItOff

Beth:  I can’t even remember now all of the things Heidi and I discussed out there.  We did randomly enough discuss pregnancy weight.  Where that topic came from – yah, I don’t know! Ha  We just enjoyed seeing people out there.  Cheering them on, receiving cheers from them.  Also me feeling stupid because I missed Mama C’s hand when she tried to high five me. Hahaha  I made up for that later!  But somewhere around the middle of the race I noticed my knees were aching and my feet were hurting and I knew I should have trusted my gut – buy new shoes before this half marathon!  I didn’t and knew all of that pain was a result of it.  It’s very rare that I get knee aches and foot pain.  And I told myself that I would not be running the next day’s race in my same shoes which happen to be the same ones I ran White Rock Marathon in – they have to be tainted!

Teal:  By around mile 10 I was starving.  I think my expectations of not making it were kicking me now.  I wanted to eat!  I started to grab whatever was available from the volunteers.  Which ended up being a handful of gummy bears and pretzels and a jolly rancher during the last 3 miles.  I am in LOVE with gummy bears for fuel now!  It settled my stomach and passed the time to make it through!

Beth:  Since I wasn’t running where I could hear mileage updates from my Runkeeper app and Heidi and I got separated somewhere in mile 10 I was having a hard time keeping straight what mile I was on exactly.  And since we had been chit chatting a lot I really only paid attention to the times Heidi updated me on what mile we were at.  Plus there were signs out on the course for the marathoners, half marathoners and 5kers and I kept getting them all mixed up! Ha

Teal: Once we hit the 12 mile mark I was so excited! I never thought I would make it that far with this foot and the lack of running.  We crossed the finish line with a 2:16 something time.  Seriously not bad considering everything! I would not have made it had I not had Brian out there to run with me!  Mentally I was already done with the race before I got there and any kick just came from someone running next to me.

Beth:  Those last 2 miles and change I was just ready to get to the finish.  I was excited because I figured I could still make it across the finish line in under 2:15.  This would be my slowest half marathon time ever, but that didn’t matter to me since I was taking on a new challenge this weekend!

Teal:  I crossed the finish line and that is when the pain rushed up.  My left knee hurt so bad that I was sure I would pass out.  I didn’t look up and just sat on the edge of the medical truck.  I was grabbing my knee; it was seriously a pain I had not felt in a long time.  One time at my house I bumped my knee on a desk and ended up passing out due to the pain, this was similar.  I laid down on the ground, Beth got me ice and then held my hand to try and divert the pain!  I did not know how long I would be able to stand it.  I am not sure how long I was down there but all I wanted to do was go home and make it go away.  We got up and walked slowly to the car, iced on the way home, at home, and then again at night to try and calm whatever was happening.  All to get up and do it again the next day.

Results

Teal: 2:16:19

Beth: 2:12:18

Our first half of the New Year's Double medal!

New Year, New Goals

Last year [how is 2011 already last year??] we started out the year with a goal for the whole year and that really worked out for us!  That worked out for us for 2011, but if we are going to push ourselves and we are going to grow even more then we need to shake things up for 2012.  You might also see some minor changes to the look of the blog due to the new year and our new goals this month!

So to start 2012 we are going to try out monthly goals!

Teal:

1.  Attend a minimum of 10 yoga classes at Sunstone.  This is big time for me! I only had 25 classes last year. I took a huge break!

2.  Complete one extra day of weight training on my own.  I train with Will two days a week, but that is all the weight training I do.  I am scared of that side of the gym when I am alone, so I am going to buck up and start a progression of doing weights on my own.  Not that I am getting rid of Will, I just need to stop being a baby.

3.  Lose 4 pounds. I am stuck! I hate it and want to be unstuck!

4.  Read a book for pleasure!  Graduate school has killed any fun reading that I once did.  I have chosen to read Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison.

(source)

Beth:

1.  Complete 200 yoga classes.  The very end of January 2011 was when I started yoga and my goal all along was to complete 200 in one year.  I broke that goal into 50 classes every 3 months.  As of this morning I have 29 more classes to go!

2.  Do a hill workout every week.  If I blew off a day in my training schedule it was always hills, and I know I will benefit from doing them SO much.

3.  Organize my room! I love organization, but for the past year I feel like I’m running from one thing to the next.  All the organizing I once did has gone out the window, and it really makes me sad that I now resemble a messy person. 🙁

4.  Find a caterer for my wedding!  This is the next big item I want to get crossed of my wedding to do list!

We each have one last goal that we are both doing –

5. Complete a 10 day Advocare cleanse.

Teal is actually an Advocare distributor.  Checkout her website and/or order from her here.  She has done their 10 day cleanse two times before and saw weight lose results each time.  After all the eating over the holidays and as Teal mentioned before being stuck (not that Beth doesn’t feel the same way) we thought this would be the perfect way to jump start the new year.  Do a cleanse and start afresh.  As of Wednesday, January 4th we will start the cleanse and our last day will be Friday, January 13th.  We will go ahead and update you sooner than the end of the month on our cleanse, but these are our goals!  We’ll check back with you at the end of the month and go from there!