Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas 2014

Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas 2014

So at this point it’s July and it’s about dang time I put up a recap of my last half marathon in MARCH, right?! Right! Here goes – when we ran New Years Double on January 1st Teal did the half and I did the the full so we found ourselves yet again at not the same half marathon number.  Don’t you love how we try and keep that the same?? It just makes it easier to keep count!

RnR Dal Pic 1

I had signed up for Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas as the last half I would run during this pregnancy.  The weather has been pretty good for this race minus 2012 when it was hot!  I didn’t then and still don’t now really know how pregnancy and hot weather mix, but it completely scares me! 🙂  Anyway, I thought this would be a great last half to do plus it was great motivation to keep me going with running.  And my cousin/friend, Chase, would be coming up from Houston to run this race as well!

RnR Dal Pic 2

RnR Dal Pic 3

It was hard to have goals for this race other than finish it!  At 20 weeks pregnant and still not really noticeable that I am pregnant I just didn’t know what my body would want to do that day.  While you couldn’t totally tell I was pregnant my pace had definitely slowed down some so I knew I was not going to be busting out a new PR or anything that day.  Of course, as race day got closer I did have this idea in my head that maybe I could achieve a 2:10 half, but again this would take a lot of listening to my body.

RnR Dal Pic 4

I got in my corral just minutes before the first corral was signaled to take off.  I was getting nervous, but was also thankful that it was kind of chilly out there instead of really, really hot!  When it was our turn Chase and I took off together although we didn’t stay together long because of a potty break. 🙂  In our family we joke about how some of us have the world’s smallest bladders and lucky for both Chase and me we inherited it!  I knew I would see some friendly faces out on the course so I just tried to start off conservatively and keep an eye out for people to say “hi” to!

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photo cred to Amy Stubblefield

My first sighting was Amy from NTX Runners who snapped the above picture of me. Since I waited until the beginning of July to write this recap (minus the few notes I put in my phone) I can’t remember now when I expected to see Teal & Catherine out there cheering, but it was juuuust shortly after this and I was soooo happy to see their smiling faces!

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My happiness of seeing them is evidenced below. 🙂IMG_2814

 

A little blurry, but I was surviving which is good to do somewhere around the 3.5 mile mark of a half marathon. 🙂  So I kept on going and the next big thing I remember from the course was that I was running through a neighborhood, saw this group of people outside of a house and thought that little kid looks familiar! Ohhhh, it’s Cason!  As in the son of J-Si from KISS FM and sure enough his wife, Kinsey, holding their daughter and their son, Cason, playing.  Though I didn’t actually see J-Si out there anywhere. Bummer! But I thought that was fun since I’m a Kidd Kraddick in the Morning fan!

Shortly after this I saw the most awesome cheering squad comprised of FRUNNERS!!  Right around mile 8 which made me oh so happy!  I mean, look at those happy faces and look at that hot dog! 🙂

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photo cred to Mama C

This left me with a goofy grin on my face and not even a mile down the road from that sighting did I hear the sounds of a police officer being an awesome cheerleader for all of the runners!  This was the first time I’d really heard an officer be THAT encouraging and vocal towards runners on a race course.  I loved it! So pretty much the goofy grinned stayed on my face that much longer thanks to him.  Before you know it I was telling myself you only have a 5K left!  And then it was you only have a mile left!  Somewhere I was able to tap into a bit of a reserve for a final kick right before the finish line.

I don't know who exactly gets the photo cred here, but Lisa texted me the picture :)

I don’t know who exactly gets the photo cred here, but Lisa texted me the picture 🙂

Oh, did you wanna know if I actually came in around 2:10 or not like I had put in my head?! Well, I made it across the finish line in 2:09:19! I was pretty darn proud of myself and felt like I ran a really conservative race considering I was in fact running for two. 🙂

RnR Dal Pic 6

With that I was caught up to Teal with half marathon no. 21 in the books! We will see you half marathons again on the other side of our pregnancies! 🙂

 

Running for Two: Trimester Two

Running for Two: Trimester Two

I had to go back and really remember what range of time made up the second trimester for me which is kind of sad since I’m really still early on in the third trimester.  My second trimester was made up mostly of February, March, April and a little bit of May.  I was hoping to still put in at least another 100 mile month in either February or March, but that just did not happen.  February ended with 71.81 miles while March came in at 67.41 miles. During this time I had the fact that I was registered for Rock n Roll Dallas as my last half to run while pregnant as my motivation to get the miles in as much as possible.  A lot of my running at this point had become solo which was not really what I was use to and made for some lonely times out on the pavement.

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16 weeks 3 days pregnant

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an overall pace of 9:52 don’t be fooled by the garmin set to current pace

I had already seen somewhat of a decline in my pace (which was to be expected), but then the month of April came and not only did I find another pace decline but also an overall mileage decline. 🙁  For me personally April was one of the busiest months as far as work was concerned and then to try and motivate myself to run solo after long days at the office or just feeling guilty about how late Mr. H and I would be eating dinner if I ran before cooking for the night.  I really have never been an early morning workout person.  Pre-pregnancy I faked it for about 6 years with my Tuesday & Thursday 6:00 a.m. weights sessions at Private Training Zone.  But when you have a group waiting for you AND you’ve already paid for the sessions it’s easy to get your lazy behind out of bed.  During this pregnancy those weights sessions have moved from the a.m. to the p.m. because there is just no will power whatsoever to get up and especially not get up for a solo run.  I’m hoping that one day this may change. Fingers crossed.

WW 45 Beth

Back to April, my total mileage came in at a lame 16.96.  Talk about a drastic decrease!  But you know what?! I may have only gotten out there to run on four different days (one of them being a race), but that’s better than 0 days of running!

It was probably in this month as well that I started noticing when I started my runs that my legs just felt like bricks.  And the times when you would dig down deep and pull from your core for a run, nope, that wasn’t really happening anymore.  I found myself one day on the treadmill trying to bust out a mile but in the last tenth of the mile I bumped the speed up a couple of notches, got an ache in my stomach and had to stop.  I walked at an incline for 5 minutes on the treadmill before it finally went away and I finished out the last bit of that mile at a very reasonable pace.  My body just can’t do the things it use to with running.  All of this is such a HUGE lesson in constantly listening to your body and not pushing it past its limits.  I like to think for the most part I’m doing a pretty good job at obeying it.  It’s just a weird combination on run of feeling like your legs are bricks, your mind knowing you really can do this and your body just saying, “Nope, slow it down! We’ve got a baby to look out for!”  It is also pretty incredible the protective mode your body goes into!

25 weeks 3 days pregnant at the Running Moms Rock 5K

25 weeks 3 days pregnant at the Running Moms Rock 5K

Being in Texas we should be in a regular stint of just HOT weather, but we have been completely blessed with some amazing weather so far this spring!  Don’t get me wrong there have been some hot days, but then a little cold front comes through and we’ve had some mornings in the low 50’s.  The weather is just another aspect of this pregnancy that has spoiled me! Regardless, for the past month or so you will NOT find me outside running without at least a handheld water bottle.  Staying hydrated and taking care of my lil guy is a high priority to me!  Pretty soon if I’m still outside running my camelbak will make it’s glorious return to my runs.

While my numbers might have been down in April and they might not be much better for this month either, but as a whole I’ve put in (according to Runkeeper) 428.4 miles in this pregnancy. I am so very proud of each and every one of the miles! I don’t really have any goals going into the third trimester other than to get runs in when and while I can.  And in the times when I can’t run to make sure I’m getting other forms of cardio in as well!

Do You Compete Every Day?

As a follow up to our random Wordless Wednesday post the other day we thought we’d give those of you who do not know who or what Compete Every Day is some more background!

We found out about Compete Every Day first at Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas expo and while standing in their booth Teal went “wait a minute! I know that model in the picture! She’s engaged to one of my co-workers!” Turns out one of her co-workers is also a model in some of the pictures! But really that’s besides the point. The point is Compete Every Day is a cool company based here in Dallas.

Ok, what are we competing for every day? might be what you are thinking right now! That’s what is cool about Compete Every Day….they don’t just mean compete for your fitness or to win race (even though that might be just what you are doing), but instead look at your life as a whole. What are the things you value most in your life? Family? Friends? Faith?

Or what is going on in life today that you are competing for?

And as a reminder to yourself you can purchase one of their comfy shirts, tanks, hoodies, shorts or even a wristband to remind you to Compete Every Day.

All the CED products we proudly own!

So why do we like Compete Every Day so much?

Well, you know now that we love what Compete Every Day means. We love local businesses with products that are worthwhile and unique. The connection was just a bonus. We have since then learned on our own that they have great customer service and super comfortable workout gear with a great message. We hope you’ll at the very least checkout Compete Every Day, but let us know if you do make a purchase!

Happy Friday!

Welp, March is Over So Time for Our Report Card & April Goals

Y’all, how is it already April?! Good Lord, time flies!  Well, here is how we measured up for March’s report card! Hope we aren’t grounded!

Teal

1. Paint Bedroom and guest room for real this time. Spring break should make this possible! A+: Done! I did this all by myself from 8-1am one day during spring break! So glad that is done. Every room in my house is now painted! Wahoo.

2. Survive my 2 week break from running and cardio by not cheating. I am going to give my body a true rest. I think it is overworked and is partially to blame for the plateau of weight-loss, my injury and that it is not fully gone, and from being tired from having 2 jobs and grad school. The break will be hard because rest is really not part of my vocabulary but it’s a needed part of life. Must get better.

A: I survived this and technically started cardio back one day early. I am happy to say that I have no foot pain, well minus our run from Saturday, but it feels great! I think my body feels better, but is ready to get back into training. Running has not been what I want but I am glad I did this. I really only ran 2 times last month outside of the 3 races we did. So it really was a good well needed break!

 

3. Yoga 12 times this month. This will be how I survive the “rest” from running/cardio. Low impact, restorative, and a good way to focus on flexibility.

C: I only went 6 times. I think my break went to my head because I really didn’t want to do anything. I was, however able to earn new Yoga bling for my 50th class this month.

 

4.  Finish Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes F: Not only did I not finish this book I A) can’t find it and B) I read the Hunger Games instead! Whoops.

 

Beth

1.  Run a sub 2:00 hour half marathon at Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas! A+: I did it!  In case you need the proof here it is 🙂

2. Lose 5 pounds. Seriously, y’all!! I need to get SERIOUS about take some pounds off for my wedding! F: Pretty sure I gained a pound. Womp! Womp!

3. Get a caterer for the wedding.  You thought this one went away didn’t you?  Well, I was all on track, got one approved by my venue and haven’t heard back from him after our initial phone call about my homes and dreams of wedding food.  I’ve chosen to take that as a sign and look elsewhere just need to setup tastings! B: Brent and I are going to a tasting Thursday and Saturday of this week! Never thought it would take THIS LONG to get to that stage of getting a caterer! Holy geez!

4.  Attend 3 to 4 yoga classes a week. You’re probably like whaa?? You yoga all the time!  Well, technically I don’t totally have yoga goals like I did for all of 2011 and I took 2 weeks off when I hit my 200 and let me tell you my body knew it!  So I want to see how I do with 3-4 times a week for a month where this blog holds me accountable! B+: I did this every week with the exception of the last week of April! So pretty darn proud of myself!

5. Update my handwriting/calligraphy website.  It needs a MAJOR change starting with a new theme that allows for a real blog inside the website.  Change is a coming! D: It still looks the same.  Part of this I need my sister’s help on and we thought she’d uploaded a new theme for my website but it didn’t go through.  AND she got to work on self-publishing her first ever book, Creative Chaos, so she got a little tied up which I don’t blame her!

As far as hills went in March I did a hill workout in 3 out of the 4 weeks of March.  And I’m totally behind on my two books a month goal and only got through Mile Makers by Kristin Armstrong in March.

 And now for April’s goals….

Teal:

1. Successfully complete the BluePrint Cleanse.  This will start Monday April 2nd and end Tuesday April 10th.

2. Complete one hill and one speed training per week, in place of regular runs or cardio.

3. I have one paper left for Grad School that is technically not due until the middle of May but I want to finish it and not procrastinate. Also I would like to finish up with all of my hours before the end of the month so I can order, submit, and file everything early to be ready for graduation!

4. Earn my 75th class yoga band.

Beth:

1. Please don’t hate me, but I’m going for lose 5lbs again.  Third time is a charm right?  I plan on doing the Advocare 10 day cleanse again this month and take a two week supply of the Advocare MNS Max 3, so all of that alone should guarantee I lose more than 5lbs we’ll just have to see how I do keeping it off the rest of the month! 🙂

2. Save the Dates – have them printed, addressed (myself) and sent off to wedding guests before this month is over!

3. Stadium workouts once a week.  This week sometime I should be meeting Johnny to do a stadium workout the way he wants me to do them and should that happen I would like to complete them once a week!

4. Prepare food for each week on Sunday nights this month.  I’ll have to do this for at least the 10 day cleanse, but to help me get serious with my food and losing weight this has to be done every week!

So time for us to get busy!  What do you have in store for the month of April? Personal goals you are trying to accomplish, running goals or both?

Are You Ready for Some Racin’?

As you know from our post yesterday we have got Kacie’s Run AND Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas on tap for this weekend!  This is almost exactly what we did this weekend last year – we say almost because last year we paired up with our friends Joe & Bitner to do Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas as a relay!

Saturday morning we will head out to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton to run this 5K benefiting Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD Special Olympics.

We have been pretty fortunate this week in Dallas with some rain on a couple of days that have left us with some nice cool temperatures!  We are hoping we’ll be in the 50’s the whole time we are out there for this 5K.

Goals: Teal will run this 5K as a race.  It is a nice flat course so maybe she’ll bring home a PR.  Her current 5K PR sits at 23:58.  Beth will be treating this 5K as more of a shakeout run so don’t expect any new PR from her, put in 3.1 at a nice easy pace and be ready for what the next day has to hold!

And Sunday holds our longer day with Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas!  We’ve been watching the weather all week to see what it would do for Sunday morning and not to mention it seems like a lot of Rock ‘n’ Roll races have had some HOT weather lately! Anyone else notice that?

As of now we are looking at a low of 62 and a high of 84. Here’s to hoping it stays in the 60’s for as long as possible!  Something else we are hoping for on Sunday is another Troy Aikman sighting! 🙂  Last year Teal saw him as she was running her leg of the relay!

Hello there, Troy Aikman!

Goals: Well, Beth made it one of her March goals to run a sub 2 hour half marathon at this race so that is the goal!  Ultimately she’d like to see a bright shiny new half PR come out of this race!  Kind of scary admitting it because there could be a huge chance it doesn’t happen, but she’s gonna try gosh darn it!  For Teal, she’s just wanting to complete the race!  If you remember from her March goals that she was taking pretty much two weeks off from any type of working out that wasn’t yoga or weights with her trainer, Will.

We are excited for this weekend! There are lots of people we know who will be out running Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas and to all of you good luck!  We would like to give a special good luck to Cynthia MacDonald!  Girl, you are going to rock your first half marathon!  Soak up every second of it because you’ll never get another first half marathon! You’ve trained hard and will do GREAT!

If you are going out to Rock n Roll to spectate you will hopefully be able to spot Beth easily in her yellow Nike shorts, gray top and yellow headband.  Teal is trying to figure out what outfit combo will result in the least amount of chaffing (yes, she wears BodyGlide sometimes it still happens!) possible so maybe you can just look for the tall girl running down the streets of Dallas! 😉

Oh and one last thing – we’ll be hitting up the expo tomorrow afternoon! When are YOU going? Maybe we could meet up!

Three Things Thursday [Ladies Themed]

Sorry to the dudes…this is geared more towards the ladies! BUT you can still read if you would like! 🙂

1.  In two days we are running the Kacie’s Run 5K, in three days we are running Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon AND in nine days we’ll be running the ZOOMA half marathon in Austin!! Like how we snuck three things into this one thing? We’re awesome like that!

2.  For our Dallas area people – come join us and some amazing vendors at this Girls Night Out! Event!  If you are coming PLEASE let us know!! 🙂

If you’ve been meaning to find a Scentsy person – there will be one there!

If you’ve been meaning to buy one of those cute no-slip headbands you see other ladies wearing at races – GlitzBandz will be there!

If you’ve been meaning to buy a new chicklit book – self published author, Kate O Lynch will be there!

If you’ve been meaning to get cute new jewelry – Melissa Vest will be there selling her handcrafted jewelry!

If you’ve been meaning to checkout a new line of skincare products – 3000BC will be there!

There will be little of something for everyone there plus a door prize and who doesn’t love wine?

3.  In keeping with the about the ladies theme of this post..check back with us on Monday as we have a GIVEAWAY coming!

Happy pre-Friday, friends! 🙂

February Report Card & March Goals

It’s that time! Here is how we did on our February goals…

Teal:

1.  Let’s try this damn weight/fat loss thing again – I’ll keep it at 4lbs. Wish me luck, perseverance, and calmness through the frustration. I know this will fix itself eventually!  F-: not sure how it is calorically possible but I have gained weight this month- that is all I can say about that. What fun.

 

2.  Paint my bedroom and hang the pictures – I have had the paint and the frames for our prints since the end of December and they have tortured me ever since.  I am actually going to give myself a B on this even though I didn’t do it BECAUSE – my brother moved out and I managed to get all that mess cleaned, the second bedroom organized and cleaned out, his room cleaned out and ready to be painted, the garage is free of his stuff, the laundry room was cleaned out from the dogs, and my house is generally in awesome condition. No paint yet but hey, that’s why we have March right?

 

3.  Read about and become more knowledgeable about Clean Eating, general good nutrition and Gluten. I have purchased Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis and Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. The goal is to read both this month.  B: Read and finished Wheat Belly- I’ll give you a recap later in the month. Very interesting! I am only half way through Good Calories Bad Calories because it is VERY hard to read. I almost feel dumb reading it because I have to keep re-reading pages to understand what I just read- if  had I known how hard it was I would have just read it a different month but it is very informative so I will finish. God help me!

 

4.   Make the foam roller my best friend and roll at least once a day, and complete ALL given Physical Therapy for my foot which includes stretching/tennis ball rolling at breakfast, lunch, and before bed and ice 1-2 times per day.  A: I completed all therapy given and I am feeling better, although the 13.1 on Sunday did hurt, I still iced immediately! I did not ice 1-2 times a day but only because I felt like the therapy was working and ice was not as needed as before! I foam roll constantly and am making progress!

5. Oh and on a “Non- Actual goal thing listed” I did Pass my Counselor Certification Test that I took the day of the Hot Chocolate Run that I had to miss!! So A+++ on that! 

Beth:

1. HILLS! Do them once a week – for real this time!  D-: Haha, I did them twice! Y’all what is my deal?  Maybe I should make this stop being a goal and just know that each month I’ll tell you what I did hill-wise?? What do you think?

2. Wedding Schtuff – Part A: Get outfits settled on (for both of us) & take engagement pictures!  Part B: Finish two of my three registries! <—Just want those things done and over with! Ha, is that a bad way to phrase it? A-: well, going into this month I had most of my outfits already, but Brent did not.  We spent two Saturdays shopping for him because in general he just needed some new clothes and shoes.  He starts a new job next week which is part of the need but he just needed new pants and shirts to add to his work mix and we made it happen.  We took engagement pictures!!  My dad is a photographer as well as a freakin’ awesome lawyer and he spent almost 4 hours with us one Sunday taking our pictures all over Dallas.  We also spent a few hours one Sunday starting and completing our registry at Crate & Barrel.  That was the only registry we have complete, but I am still proud!  Another wedding thing to check off is we have a Best Man!  We had a planned dinner with Brent’s friend, his wife and their son and got our first person in Brent’s side of the wedding party! So I feel like I still deserve an A range grade because a lot of weekend days this month were taking up with wedding related items!

3.  Lose 5 pounds!  I’m taking engagement pictures this month, so a  few pounds off and working towards a smaller weight for upcoming races needs to happen!  F: Yah, I am at the exact same weight. Ha. In all honesty, I meant to go get a scale to be more conscious of this and to meet my goal, but uhhh, yah that never happened.  Oopsie??

4.  Clean the craft/guest/whatever room!  My sister and I have a guest room at our house and we each kind of have half of it to ourselves and then a teeny tiny twin bed sits in the middle of it. Ha, we are both former, big-time scrapbookers so we have got crafts galore in there!  This will be my next room I conquer! F: Nope, just did not have the time for this! 🙁  If I’m going to get something on this scale done it has to be on the weekend and all the weekends this month were FAR too full to make this happen.

Joint goal:

5.  Both participate in #FabAbFeb Well, Teal finished the challenge even if some days she doubled up on days she still finished it!  Beth on the other hand missed the last week of it.

 

And now it’s time for March’s goals…..dun dun dun!

Teal

1. Paint Bedroom and quest room for real this time. Spring break should make this possible!

2. Survive my 2 week break from running and cardio by not cheating. I am going to give my body a true rest. I think it is overworked and is partially to blame for the plateau of weight-loss, my injury and that it is not fully gone, and from being tired from having 2 jobs and grad school. The break will be hard because rest is really not part of my vocabulary but it’s a needed part of life. Must get better.

3. Yoga 12 times this month. This will be how I survive the “rest” from running/cardio. Low impact, restorative, and a good way to focus on flexibility.

4.  Finish Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes

Beth

1.  Run a sub 2:00 hour half marathon at Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas!

2. Lose 5 pounds. Seriously, y’all!! I need to get SERIOUS about take some pounds off for my wedding!

3. Get a caterer for the wedding.  You thought this one went away didn’t you?  Well, I was all on track, got one approved by my venue and haven’t heard back from him after our initial phone call about my homes and dreams of wedding food.  I’ve chosen to take that as a sign and look elsewhere just need to setup tastings!

4.  Attend 3 to 4 yoga classes a week. You’re probably like whaa?? You yoga all the time!  Well, technically I don’t totally have yoga goals like I did for all of 2011 and I took 2 weeks off when I hit my 200 and let me tell you my body knew it!  So I want to see how I do with 3-4 times a week for a month where this blog holds me accountable!

5. Update my handwriting/calligraphy website.  It needs a MAJOR change starting with a new theme that allows for a real blog inside the website.  Change is a coming!

It should also be noted that I haven’t given up on my hills every week, but I feel like that’s annoying to keep putting it as a goal and not mastering it.  And another note would be at the beginning of the year I gave myself a goal of reading 24 books this year which this has really been a goal of mine for a couple years now.  I got close one year with 20.  This are two things I kind of want to keep up to date with in these posts but make them different from the things I try to achieve that vary each month.  Does that make sense? Can you handle that? I’m going to be busy this month!

We will see you guys on the flip side of this month with how we did! 🙂  Wish us luck!

Wordless Wednesday No. 16

What do you think? Suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday No. 14

Our 2011 Race Medals!

 

Our favorite medals for 2011!

Oops…we are putting words in this post!!!…..We each picked our favorite medal for 2011 as you can see above. Teal picked the medal from our Disneyland Half in September because it was her fastest half and most memorable run in terms of the crowd and scenes.  Beth actually had a hard time choosing between three (Disney – SO memorable like Teal said and Rock ‘n’ Roll SA – went sub 2 hours on a half again!) but ultimately picked the Dallas White Rock Marathon medal!  What you probably can’t really tell is Teal has one more medal than Beth – remember back in September at the Heroes for Children 5k where she hit a major PR AND won her age group?  Yah, she’s got a medal to prove that!

Top left to bottom left: Rock 'n' Roll Dallas, Wounded Warrior, White Rock Centennial Half Marathon and Disneyland Half

 

DRC Half, White Rock Marathon and Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio

 

These are our 2011 medals!  All of these medals represent our original goal for this year, BUT we still have half of a medal to earn December 31, 2011 and complete the other half on January 1, 2012 at New Year’s Double!

Do you have a medal you are most proud of this year?