Ironman Texas Volunteering

July 18, 2013 by · 1 Comment

Two months ago today we were in  Houston for a weekend of volunteering, frunners, cheering and spectating greatness!  We made the four hour trek from Houston the night before with Beth’s sister, Kate.

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None of us left work early and then we decided to all sit down to eat dinner instead of making Teal have to eat and drive at the same time, so we were really setting ourselves up for a late arrival into Houston.  By the time our heads hit the pillow that night we knew that alarm clock was right around the corner. 🙁

But it was so worth it.  We met up with the DFW Crew that was volunteering and the rest of our volunteer group for wetsuit peeling (but let’s call it what it really is wetsuit stripping).  All of us volunteers watched the elites start the swim and then made our way over to where we’d be stripping athletes. 🙂  The worst part of the day was being present at the swim finish when people didn’t complete it in time and were stripped of their tag and done for the day.  Talk about heartbreaking!

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The crew with Mike Reilly

Once our stripping duties were over we got second breakfast/super early lunch, whatever you want to call it, before making our way over to the canal area to find the perfect spot to hangout and later cheer for the athletes.  We were there before the elites had started their marathon portion and man was it amazing to see all of them.  Where we were spectating enabled us to see the athletes 3 times on the run part.

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oh, race signs!

Or really since they ran along the other side of the canal you could say we saw runners 6 times…

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We had a lot of time out on this portion of the race and some time to kill, so we ate a lot of goldfish (shocking), maybe had a couple adult beverages and enjoyed the company of our frunners. 🙂

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A part from the people our group knew racing that day Teal had a friend Derek out there that she also got to cheer for – if only this picture of Derek wasn’t blurry!

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Thanks to the one company that had people passing out cowbells for spectators and a couple of the awesome ladies with us we had tons of stuff to cheer with and/or entertain us.

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We were both so excited and pumped to get to cheer on the power couple of Heidi & Brian. 🙂 These two worked their butts off for months preparing for this day, their hard work showed and paid off!

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Heidi minutes away from being called an Ironman!

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Brian minutes away from being called an Ironman!

The accomplishment of all of the athletes we encountered that day was inspiring!  You won’t catch us doing an Ironman, but man what a feat and such a neat thing for us to be a part of as volunteers and cheerleaders!

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A none blurry picture of Team Leub after they rocked their first Ironman!  Congrats to you both….two months later! You two impress us with your dedication, strength and accomplishment!

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Apparently this is what you look like after covering 140.6 miles each!

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Tour des Fleurs 10K

September 19, 2012 by · 9 Comments

Well, as we said in our pre-race post this was Beth’s 5th time and Teal’s 3rd time to run TDF.  It’s just a fun race!  You park off site of the Dallas Arboretum (or we do because we don’t want to pay the ridiculous parking package to park on premise) and get shuttled there.  Once there you get to walk through the grounds a little bit to see some of the arboretum which is usually already full of pumpkins in preparation for Fall, however, this year some of the Chihuly exhibit is taking over so the pumpkins had to share their space.

Who is Dale Chihuly? He is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur. Have you ever been in the Bellagio in Vegas? Well then chances are you’ve seen the amazing glass ceiling Chihuly did in their lobby.  Here is an additional picture of one of his installations we took on Saturday.  There will be another one later on too. 🙂

And now we give you our races from each of our perspectives –

Teal: Friday was an insane day and I was home super late, then after my cake ball disaster I managed to get like 4 hours of sleep and I really as not feeling this race! As a matter of fact, I had really had it with life by 5:30 am Saturday. I was really just ready to go back to bed. I kept saying to myself, Thank GOD we did not sign up for the 20k, because I would have probably broken down and cried.   I was somewhat nervous because I wanted to run a good race because we had decided to really use this as our base time for marathon training. We are going to use the Run Less Run Faster theory and it is based around your 10k time. In my head I wondered, do I just run a good steady race or just race it for real?! I decided I would make that call within a mile. Our friend Veronica asked our pace before the race and I responded “Oh somewhere between 9 and 11 minutes.” Ha, I really had no clue and really have had no clue about pace lately anyway.

Veronice, Teal, Beth & Bitner

Beth: Before we started the race we were hanging out down by the stage where bands play and where we had told people we would be if they wanted to come say hi since we had to live right after the race.  We got see our fellow NTX Runner, Brian and finally meet @runreadrant a.k.a. Caron before they started their 20K race 30 minutes before us.  Brian had told us we were going to do our 10K in 55 minutes.  I’m not sure how Teal felt about that, but in my mind I was going, yah, right! Or could I pull that time out?? I have to run this smart! Oh gooooooddd!

Teal: We started the race and I really felt fine! I had committed to racing for sure by 3 miles.  All miles were well under 9 minutes so I knew it was going well. We all hung in with each other which was an awesome way to keep pace!

Beth: I always forget it can be kind of a cluster at the start of this race. I know, I know, what race isn’t? Well this path is even more narrow to start so it can be hard to get around some people.  I wasn’t really sure what this meant in terms of Teal and I staying together for the race, but before I knew it we were reunited on the course.  Even Friday night I’d been thinking about Brian’s comment to us about running it in 55 minutes since he mentioned that to us somewhere on the internet that day.  I didn’t want to start out too fast and not be able to make it the last few miles. So my thoughts started with – ok, if I run the first mile in 9:30 then start to speed up from there. Plus 8:30 is 18 minutes. Another 8:30 is 26:30…..At some point in the 3 miles Teal and I had joined up with Bitner and we were running together which was really fun!  I was kind of paying attention to my runkeeper but not totally and wouldn’t allow myself to think much about a PR until I got to the last couple of miles.

We are going to probably buy this pic so for now we don’t feel bad for putting it up here like this. Photo courtesy of Your Sporting Image

Teal: At around mile 4, I started to feel it and ran a tad bit slower. I moved back from Beth around here and had actually threw up a little bit, which is totally disgusting, but I was really kind of tired. I really didn’t know where I was in terms of race time and PRing but I just said, you need to pick it up, there are only 2 miles left! I increased my pace by about 20 seconds and just said, keep moving. Beth was out of my site by the 5 mile mark but I could still see Bitner. My goal was to keep him in sight. I ended up losing him in all the turns around 5.5.

Beth: All, I remember from the past 10K’s of TDF that we’ve run is there is one hill that I hate.  Well, I got to it, ran it and it didn’t feel so bad.  I thought we were all set from there and it would be flat from here on out. Uhh, wrong. There were some added little hills in there and not to mention concrete that was cracked, had crevices and holes.  I was kind of nervous about twisting an ankle or something. When we hit mile 4 I knew I had some more in me and I wanted to dig deep and get ‘er done. Early on I’d wanted to slow down some and save some reserve for later in the race, but since I was running with Teal and Bit I just kept going.  It was in mile 4 that I thought, yah, I am running this race and doing the work, but I’m not sure I’d have made it where I was then if it wasn’t for Teal and Bit’s pacing.

Teal: It was a little past this point that I was literally clipped in the elbow by a biker! (not bad but I felt her) I had to throw my arm up to make sure she didn’t hit the rest of me. I looked over and a spectator was shaking his head at her. I can’t believe how close she came. And yes maybe at that point my elbows were wide, but she was way too close!! Most of the time, if you are in a bikers way they tell you,  I had my headphones on but low enough to where I could hear around me because there were so many bikers out, I wanted to make sure it was fine.

Beth: During my last two miles I remember thinking in years past – when is this ever going to end??  I had a good laugh at myself as the amount of halfs I have run have dramatically increased even from last year.  When I ran TDF 2010 I ran it as a race in my training and TDF 2011 we did the 20K for training for our first marathon (plus some additional miles after the race).  This was the first time I’d really run TDF with all the long miles I’ve put in to running. Somewhere in the 5 mile range I was passing a fellow lady runner who turned to me and said “you got this!”  At that point I had no words and wanted to try and find her after the race to tell her thank you.

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Teal: I crossed the finish line and knew it was a PR but I didn’t know by how much. I just had to keep walking because I was spent!  I was super happy because I needed  that after the rough night and really crappy races/running lately! I walked by the announcer and ended up talking to him because he was lecturing the bike riders on his microphone! I went over and told him what had happened and how close she had been to me at the end. I can’t believe how fast the Saturday bikers went by us. This was not the first time we have run around White Rock and had bikers be a tad crazy. We know, and we for sure believe that the road should be shared! It was just so crazy that they still wanted to speed past people on FOOT! That was really too close for comfort!

Beth: There wasn’t much left for my body to give at the end.  I was running with every ounce of my body working the last few miles.  My abs were working and it was here that I was thinking about how important a strong core can be for a runner.  My last few races where I have dug deep, or every time I run hills and every time I run bleachers my core strength has been working with me.  So don’t forget about working on that in your training too! When I crossed the finish line the clock said 55:and change, but based on my runkeeper I thought I had made it in 54:and change.  I didn’t get my runkeeper turned off right away so I would have to wait for the officially results to know exactly what I had done.

Isn’t this Chihuly installation cool??

Needless to say we  love TDF and look forward to running it again in the future! Oh and we totally wouldn’t mind if you guys brought the hat back at the end of the race 😉 Hint, hint, Race Director!!!  See the hat Bitner has on in the above picture? Yah, Beth has 3 of those and then bam! Last year they quit doing them. 🙁  We also should note that this race had some awesome food after too! Wish we could have stuck around longer to eat more of it! We did manage to snag a couple of breakfast tacos before we got shuttled back to our cars. We might need to fill out a survey to let them know what all we liked and what we’d like to see come back!

Results:

Teal: 55:43; 303rd person to finish and finished 26th out of 169 in her AG.

Beth: 54:31; 262nd person to finish and finished 15th out 139 in her AG.

 So we both took home PR’s that day! We have completed our first race in different Age Groups – crazy! Some more to come in the next 8 months.

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Don’t Worry We Didn’t Forget about Our August Report and New Goals for September

September 7, 2012 by · 10 Comments

Just SO many things were happening to start off this month we wanted to fill you in on those first!  And Beth’s wedding is now officially NEXT month, where has the time gone?!?

Yah, we don’t know either, so on to our August Report Card…

Teal:

1. Get through the first month of my new job without having any major breakdowns. I have found out over the last 3 days that this is going to be crazy- in a good way crazy but there is so much to learn and a lot at stake for mistakes.

A: I would have given myself an A+ but I did come close to having one.  Really I almost lost it on the computer system. It doesn’t exactly do what you want it to do!

2. Keep running at least 3 days outside. I don’t like the treadmill but it is about 100 even at 9 o’clock at night and the mornings range in the upper 80’s with the sun still down.

A+: I did it, but really do not let this deceive you some of them were a mile and half….

Beth:

1. Yoga once a week.  I’ve been trying to do this and haven’t but I think for my stress levels this month I REALLY need to add this one into my routine!

F: so, um, yah….I went once. 🙁 It was really awesome though! Plus it made me realize I am only 31 classes away from 250  yoga classes! Must do better!

2. Mail ALL wedding invitations!

A-: They are mailed!!! I do still need to hand deliver invitations to my parental units and siblings plus I have a couple people who moved right as invitations were going out so I need to redo a couple and send them out hence the A-.

some of the invites that were mailed

3. I’m going to be like Teal and say keep up with my running and get in 4 days of running each week!

B: I ended up running 12 out of the 31 days, so that averages out 3 times a week.  Still pretty darn proud of myself and can definitely remember times I didn’t go on a run because I let wedding stuff take priority.

Joint Goal:

Our marathon training for the Louisiana Marathon will be here in no time and in preparation for training and making a plan we both are going to take the time this month to read Run Less Run Faster. Just want to explore options and get a plan that fits both of us!

F: Yah, Beth downloaded it to her kindle and didn’t read it…..Teal ordered it from Amazon in the middle of August and still has not received her copy. Major fail!

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Teal:

1. Make Bridesmaid dress fit!

2. Read my book club book before September 23rd without having to cram, but hopefully Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult will hold my interest (I am not a big fiction book person and the club turned down my 100 Year Lie suggestion).

3. Log food within 100 calories of goal.

4. Not cry on my 30th Birthday!

Beth:

1. Run 20 miles a week.

2. Not kill anyone….haha, not trying to be morbid, but wedding planning is HARD!

As far as running hills once a week this past month I have been running bleachers once a week which I pretty much count if I do one of them a week I’m doing great!  My books for this month were a couple of chicklit, mindless reads, Something Blue by Emily Giffin and Build a Man by Talli Roland) and then a memoir that was good! I recommend Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Joint:

1. Figure out and finalize our marathon training plan!

2. Run a good, strong race at Tour des Fleurs since we will be basing our training times off of this 10k!

So there you have it! This is what we are currently reaching for this month and hopefully we’ll have some good stuff to report to you throughout September as well as by the time October rolls around! 🙂

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Ahhh, It’s August! July Report Card & Goals for This Month!

August 2, 2012 by · 6 Comments

We’ll skip the whole OMG-let’s freak out-it’s August thing.  Kinda anyway and dive right on in! Here’s how we measured up with our goals for the month of July –

Teal:

1. Read Power of Habit, work on the stupid ”I am just going to stand here and eat random crap while I look for something to eat” problem. 

C- : I am only about half way through this book but I think I get the point, he repeats a lot and gives very long winded examples. I have been so busy that my habit in and of itself has had a hard time existing because I have not been in the kitchen!

2. Get my office ready at my new job. My contract starts July 30th and I would like to be more than set before I start working. I can’t work if stuff is not organized and finished so this is a must. Right now it looks like a war zone and crap is all over the place.

 A: Off ice is ready and as of Monday I am officially back to work. So so so glad I got that done before we started because there would have been no time.
3. Run an avg of 25 miles a week.  This is close to the plan, not every week, but I am trying to still balance what my body decides it will do and my wanting to get faster and have more endurance.
F: I ran 48 miles total last month, so not even 2 weeks worth of what I wanted to do. This would totally make sense if you saw our running funk post.

Beth

1. Read This Is Why You’re Fat by Jackie Warner.

A+: LOVED IT!! Look for a post all about this book soon!

2. Keep up with My Fitness Pal and keep up with Daily Mile. 

C+: I definitely could have done WAY better than I did, BUT it is a far better improvement from where I was all of June!

 3. I have my own monthly challenge I started of doing dips and planks regularly, and have been keeping a record of it on a calendar I printed out.  Here’s to getting in 5 days of those at least each week!  I’ll show you my calendar at the end of the month!
F: Do I have to show you my calendar? 🙁 I started out fine and then it dwindle…..blah!  The calendar might as well be empty, but I am proud of my #powerplankchallenge I completed on Tuesday thanks to Mindy & Holly for hosting it! Planked once every hour for 8 hours!
As far as my trying to run hills weekly – yah, I think I did once last month. Fail!  And in addition to reading This Is Why You’re Fat I also read Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane which was a fun read since I’m wedding planning and the main character as a small back story is planning her’s as well.
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And here is what we plan to accomplish in the month of August –

Teal:

My goals for August are basic because I know that this may be the busiest month I have had in a long long time, if ever. I just want to make it through work and stay running! So here you go!

1. Get through the first month of my new job without having any major breakdowns. I have found out over the last 3 days that this is going to be crazy- in a good way crazy but there is so much to learn and a lot at stake for mistakes.

2. Keep running at least 3 days outside. I don’t like the treadmill but it is about 100 even at 9 o’clock at night and the mornings range in the upper 80’s with the sun still down.

Beth:

My goals are also pretty basic too as the month of August scares me! No free weekends whatsoever and SO MUCH to accomplish!

1. Yoga once a week.  I’ve been trying to do this and haven’t but I think for my stress levels this month I REALLY need to add this one into my routine!

2. Mail ALL wedding invitations!

3. I’m going to be like Teal and say keep up with my running and get in 4 days of running each week!

Joint Goal:

Our marathon training for the Louisiana Marathon will be here in no time and in preparation for training and making a plan we both are going to take the time this month to read Run Less Run Faster. Just want to explore options and get a plan that fits both of us!

Here’s to getting it all accomplished this month!

What are your goals for the month of August?

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Five Things About Us

July 30, 2012 by · 7 Comments

If you follow us on Instagram you might have seen the picture below on Friday. If you don’t follow us on Instagram and you are in fact on there – go follow us! Right now!

Anyway, Courtney tagged us in a 5 Things About Us post on instagram and we thought we’d share that here with a little more detail.

1. Yes, Teal is married and Beth is engaged, but it’s ok to have a celebrity boyfriend on the side right?? One that we happen to both share?

2. You would really never know it since Teal straightens her hair all the time, but yes, she does in fact have curly hair! It’s not often that it’s in curly form and we actually had to go back to our beach trip in 2007 to find that picture.

3. We shop at the exact same clothing stores. We are not afraid to buy an article of clothing the other one has – clearly based on the above picture! This must mean we both have great taste! And we big time puffy heart Francesca’s!

4. Yep, we are! At any given moment we probably each have a bottle of nail polish on us or in our car. Ok, not actually when we are out on a run, but guarantee we both always have one bottle in our purse!

5. Could anyone be more obsessed with goldfish than the two of us? We don’t think so! Put a bag infront of us and it will NOT last!

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June Report Card & Our Goals for July

July 6, 2012 by · 4 Comments

Have you noticed a trend in us running behind this summer?? 🙁  Thanks for having patience and sticking around with us those that are!  Maybe it’s just a summer thing and come fall we will be back to our normal routines?? One can hope right? We continue to be freaked out by each and every new month that comes because well – time is flying people!

Teal:

1.  Clean out the garage which involves properly deposing of all old paint, chemicals, and random things you can’t through in the regular trash, donating anything that  should have donated a long time ago, if it belongs to my brother it’s going to his house, and then just generally cleaning. Why I pick June to work outside in the heat is beyond me but whatever!?

A+: this was so much easier than I thought. I just called the city, ordered the bag and left it on the front porch! The garage is cleaned out, despite an attack from 2 cockroaches, don’t worry the Orkin man has been out to fix that little problem too!

2.  So I graduated at the beginning of May!! Yay, but I have very annoying things that I have/need to do

  • Consolidate and move all my student loans to one place and get on a better plan to pay off faster. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!
  • Register for the LPC exam and not cry when I pay the $300 to take it
  • Organize all the grad work that I did that I want, toss the old stuff, bind what I am keeping ( anyone have one of those spiral binding things?)
  • Organize, bind, toss, or give away my teaching stuff! I will be moving to counselor next year and have a billion teaching things to go through

B: Turns out I can wait until November to consolidate, so I will, can’t register for the LPC until October, paper are organized ( I used binders instead) and my teaching stuff is ready for my friend to have whenever I see her!!

3.  Follow my under 2 hour half marathon runkeeper running plan as close to possible! I will eventually run an under 2 hour half marathon if it kills me! Well not really, I want to live, but you get the point!

B-: I am not sure how to rank this, I have done most of the runs, I usually end up leaving one of the runs per week out because my body doesn’t do well with 3 relatively tough days in a row, by the third one my knee hates me and I would rather keep my body intact and not made at me than to run! However, I do feel stronger and better already so I’ll just keep working through July!

4.  Eliminate random eating. Raise your hand if you stand around trying to figure out something to eat and you find yourself eating crap in the process! ME!! This has to stop!! It’s not like am eating like crazy stuff, but it is mindless and when I finally figure out what to eat, I’m annoyed that I ate weird random things in the meantime!

F: I think I need to make a sign for the pantry and refrigerator. Not sure how to stop this habit. I bought a book – The Power of Habit… maybe just maybe that will help? Re-do in July!!


Beth:

1.  This time around my weight goal is simply: DON’T GAIN ANY!!! Ha, sounds simple right?  Well, this is my birth month and my parents are divorced so this usually means multiple celebrations with good food, good drinks and dessert.  So it’s a dangerous time of year for me. No weight gain in June!!

A++++++: I am still at the same weight! Wahoo! I survived all of the Birthday eating this month!

2. Yoga 2-3 times a week.  Ever since I finished my goal of completing 200 classes in a year I’ve been kind of a slacker, so let’s get back to yoga goals! It’s soooo good for me!

F: Yah, I didn’ t go at all. Fail, Beth, fail!

3.  Finish projects at Brent’s house.  I volunteered his house to host a friend dinner (like this one) towards the end of the month and I haven’t finished some art I started for the walls, since I’ll eventually move in there (you know when we are married) I had already left all of my racing medals, hook to hold them, awesome race bib board my SIL made me over there they just need to be hung up.

A: I finished my “home” picture I was making though I have a feeling the perfectionist in me will make me redo it at some point!

It says home in a bunch of different languages all of which are written on the canvas so I can always know.

I also got my medal hook and medals hung up – now what to do with the OTHER medals that are not on this hook??

I might kind of have a thing for the color blue….

I didn’t get my bib holder hung up because I decided that I wanted to change out the hooks that are currently on it to clips so that all different size bibs can hang for it, so that’s still a project! But I did get a shelf all spray painted and it sits below the medal hook in the office AND we got the guest bedroom cleaned up for now.  My purdy quilt Rebekah made me occupies the bed and I put up some other things around the room. I consider what I did at my future home a success this month!

4. Finish the two wedding projects I have ALL of the supplies for! :)

Looking back at this goal I am not exactly sure which ones I was talking about. HA!  But y’all I got A LOT of wedding schtuff done this month!  Some projects might not be finished but they are well on their way to being completed!  And there is one project for sure still sitting in the packaging, but it requires me sitting in the garage by myself for awhile to work on it which does not fully excite me hence the delay! 🙂  I am kind of afraid to show pictures of projects I am working on as I don’t want to give everything away on the internet and would like certain stuff to be seen for the first time at the wedding. 🙂

My reoccurring goals – Hills, well, I did 3 out of 4 weeks of hills in June and let me tell you that it is getting HOT in Texas!  As far as books go I am still on Target with my goal of reading 24 this year and read my 12th book this month, the recent release, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Could not put this book down!

(source)

And on to July goals!! Here’s also to hoping that our July Report Card is up on the blog in the first few days of August!! Wheee! HA

Teal:

1. Read Power of Habit, work on the stupid ” I am just going to stand here and eat random crap while I look for something to eat” problem.

(source)

2. Get my office ready at my new job. My contract starts July 30th and I would like to be more than set before I start working. I can’t work if stuff is not organized and finished so this is a must. Right now it looks like a war zone and crap is all over the place.
3. Run an avg of 25 miles a week.  This is close to the plan, not every week, but I am trying to still balance what my body decides it will do and my wanting to get faster and have more endurance.
I think 3 is enough for July as we have a late start and I will be out of my house for a little more than a week for training in Ft. Worth and Beth’s bacheorette party (wahoo!!) which makes just the balance of life harder! Here we go July!
Beth:
1. Read This Is Why You’re Fat by Jackie Warner.  I saw Dorothy talk about this book on her blog and immediately wanted to read it.  I’ve been a fan of Jackie Warner’s since she had that show on Bravo called Workout, so Jackie Warner book here I come!
2. Keep up with My Fitness Pal.  I don’t usually record what I eat on the weekends, and so this month I’m going to try hard to keep up with it during the week!  And this is a twofer – keep up with Daily Mile. I totally let that one go in June so keep up with my fitness apps in July!!
3. I have my own monthly challenge I started of doing dips and planks regularly, and have been keeping a record of it on a calendar I printed out.  Here’s to getting in 5 days of those at least each week!  I’ll show you my calendar at the end of the month!
Also, in other news…we LIED and we will reveal the winner of our Tone It Up Challenge Monday!! 🙂  Have a great rest of the month and hope you have some awesome things in store for it!
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Happy National Running Day!!

June 6, 2012 by · 1 Comment

How many miles are you putting in today to celebrate??  Are you running a new route?

We’ll be joining our fellow NTX Runners tonight for a celebration and run!  Can’t wait!

Why do YOU run??  To create your own I Run… badge go here!

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Break? I Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Break….OK, Maybe I Do!

March 6, 2012 by · 15 Comments

On our March goals I mentioned that I wanted to survive my 2 week rest without cheating and we figured that that you might need a little more explanation. So here goes…

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Not too long ago I told you guys about my weight and my efforts to lose weight. I had been the heaviest in my life and not happy so I decided to do something about it. I managed to drop down quite a bit but have essentially been stuck at my current weight for a while now. At first I just had no loss or gain, and then all of a sudden an actual gain in fat for the first time in 2 years. To me, and many others this may seem odd, I work out basically everyday, run all the time, play basketball, swim, workout with a personal trainer, track my food, have very few cheat days…. you get the drift…an actual fat gain seems pretty impossible to me. So what is the problem?? It is calorically impossible in my opinion for this to happen.

I talked to my trainer, Will, about this a lot, he dug into what he knows and asked around as well and basically came to a consensus that I am overtraining and my body is in an adaptive mode all the time. So while I have fallen into a very healthy routine of exercise and eating right my body has too and has basically decided it is going to stay where it is. Thanks body – love you too!

Talk about motivation killer. I think I actually had a pitty party at the gym the day I was weighed and even broke down and decided exercise and everything I was doing was pointless and stupid, a waste of time.. blah blah blah. Ever feel like this??

I would say that this is similar to when people decide they have to make a change and come to a breaking point. Will asked me if it was feasible to take 2 weeks off from working out and move my body from adaptive mode and into recovery. I cringed of course. I have 2 half marathons in March, hence part of the problem, but I decided to do it. During this time I am going to do no running or cardio. I will weight train 2 times a week with Will and yoga 2 to 3 times a week. Getting my runner self  to not run 3-4 weeks before a race is a little scary, but I am too frustrated to stay where I am and not try something new! I can’t help but think of the insanity definition here. Can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting something to change.

Also, Beth and I both joined MyFitnessPal this week. I have always tracked her food on myapex but I found that it is less convenient. Sorry 24 Hour Fitness! MyFitnessPal works super easy on the phone and has more food listed so it makes it much easier to track food better. So with the rest, I am also becoming more on point with food.

Anyone ever been through this madness before? Let us know!  What did and did not work for you??

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