The 2014 Running of Tour des Fleurs 10K

The 2014 Running of Tour des Fleurs 10K

December 4, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

This was the first race we ran together post baby for both of us! If you’ll remember when we ran Liberty by the Lake on the 4th of July that was Teal’s first race back and Lane’s first race on the outside! 🙂

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Let’s stop for a second and admire how beautiful White Rock looks in the background of the above and below pictures.

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Neither one of us had really run as far as a 10K since having Lane and Miles so we knew that we weren’t reeeeally ready to run TDF, BUT we’ve run it the last 4 years so we didn’t want to miss it this year.  We love this race! In fact we probably say that every year. Plus you basically have free admission to the arboretum so we forced our husbands and babies to come along so that we could have photo time afterwards.

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Per usual we ran this race with Bitner because he’s part of the tradition of it too. 🙂  Not to mention it’s his birthday weekend so it’s an all around Bitner weekend and we are so glad he made the trip up here from Austin.  We are still in denial even now that he has left us for Austin.  And our girl, Catherine, came out to run it for a second year with us too. You’re welcome for that, TDF!

The plan for this race was stick together, know there will be some walk breaks and finish! It was a good hour plus of catching up on life, babies and everything in between.  We were even lucky enough to catch Mark out there on the lake getting in a 20 mile run for the day.

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We finished the race, got our finisher’s hats and made our way to the pumpkins for photos.

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hehehe #newmomfail

IMG_6706We will see you next year, Tour des Fleurs! 🙂

 

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Tour des Fleurs 10K

September 26, 2013 by · 1 Comment

By now you’ve probably learned that with some of our weekends we really like to go big or go home and by that we mean fit ALL of the things into one weekend. 🙂  Our Wordless Wednesday post was a glimpse into everything we had going on this past weekend.

We kicked it off Saturday morning by running the Tour des Fleurs 10K at the Arboretum just like we’ve done every September for the last 5 and 6 years.  And per usual our friend Bitner also participated in the race with us, but this year we also made Catherine join in the fun as well!

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You can probably tell from the picture that Bitner was a little cold that morning – ha!  A “cold” front had come through and we woke up in Dallas to temperatures in the 60’s.  It was woooonderful and a big change from the heat!  By the time we catch a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the Arboretum and walk through the Arboretum to the race area we aren’t really there that early and it’s time to start the race.  Off we all go on our merry way.

Running along White Rock Lake as we have done every year at this race.  We make it to the one “major” hill on the course that’s almost at the halfway mark.  Beth encounters a runner that’s running a zig zag pattern up the hill with her fingers out dancing along to her music.  We turn the corner and the hill is over! There’s a 3 mile marker sign. Huh? Where was the 2 mile marker sign?  Oh, well surely someone just messed up. Running, running.  Hey 5 mile marker sign.  Ok, this is just messed up!  We are a little over a mile off from these mile markers.  Beth opted to go music-less for this race and no one else around her was commenting about the markers so she kind of assumed maybe she just took a wrong turn because it wouldn’t have been the first time (hello, Too Hot to Handle 2011!).  Teal right away knew something was wrong with the course and reaffirmed that with other runners around here.

It turned out that the lead officer took that right turn onto the “big” hill instead of going straight a little bit further and us coming back to the hill.   And then there really wasn’t a person out there to direct racers either, so we all ended up running a 5.15 mile race. PR’s for everyone! 🙂

When the race was over we each grabbed our finisher’s hats (THANKS for bringing those back, TDF!!) and made our way to the after party.  They do throw a darn good after party with beer, lots of different food options and some free schtuff.

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see the free schutff in our hands?

One of the best parts about this race is getting to walk around the Arboretum afterwards and see all the pumpkins and gourds out all over the place.  The majority of the time it doesn’t feel like Fall is even that close when we do this race, but we absolutely love getting to see the Arboretum all done up for Fall.

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There were a lot of racers whose family came with them and were taking their children out of strollers to have their pictures taken amongst the pumpkins.  As you know we don’t have kids so we opted to put Bitner in the pumpkins and take his picture. 🙂  He loves of us, clearly, because he puts up with us doing these things!

IMG_0031[1]It is sad that the race wasn’t a true 10K, but we love this race!  We can still remember the feelings of nervousness when we were running our first 10Ks. So far!  It’s a bit pricey, but considering the great after party, the finisher’s hat (though they were gone for two years) and the free entry into the Arboretum it’s a good deal! We’ll be back!

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PR’ing All Over September

October 2, 2012 by · 7 Comments

Talk about a dreary weekend in Dallas! Lots of raining on Saturday and it just continued Sunday morning.  The race started at 7 a.m. which had this been a hot day like it very well could have been considering it is Texas the early start time would have been awesome!  We arrived at 6 a.m. since registering late made us need to do race day packet pickup.  We got our bibs and our shirts and headed back to the car for a few minutes so Beth could finish her breakfast, put her shoes on and we could drop our race shirts off.  Then we found a covered building entrance riiight next to the start line to hangout under so we wouldn’t get wet from the mist while we waited for the race to start.

 

Teal: We had waited around the start line forever so we actually ended up starting with the “fast group” and this seriously made a difference in the way this race went.  I was very surprised at the pace after mile one and it actually didn’t feel bad at all. I have really been deciding lately how my race will go after mile 1 or 2. I just can’t tell anymore before I start running. By mile 3 we were right around 27 minutes which is fast for me, really fast for me.  My only complaint about miles 1-3 is that I don’t think they could have taken us through an uglier part of Dallas. We were basically running alley ways of only buildings in the crappier part of the design district.

Waiting for the race to start

Beth: We had seen the Luebs right after getting our bibs then found Brian at the start line, and 3 of us chatted about our running lately and what our paces might be for today’s race.  Brian mentioned wanted to run 9 minute miles and I thought Ohh, that sounds good I want to do that! I can do that right?! I just had in my mind the last time I ran a 10 mile race I held about a 9:30 pace, but that was in May meaning hotter weather.  So the race starts and all 3 of us take off. Brian kind of really took off and at the 5 minute mark my Runkeeper tells me we were already over halfway through the first mile and I swear it said we were running at about a 7:50 something pace. That freaked me out. Then I just thought 9 minute pace my ass Brian! 🙂 [Sorry Mom, I said ass, oops did it again]

Miles 3-6

Teal: My goal here was to make sure I stayed under an hour and to make sure I maintained a pace I was happier with. The first 3 were very fast and I was slightly scared I would die. I kept running how tired I was at the end of Tour des Fleurs in my head and worried about what 6-10 would be like. I slowed a little but not much and just kept counting in my head. I lost Beth around 4 but really kept her in my sight for the next mile-ish. I crossed the 10K mark just a tad faster than the 10K PR the week before and was super excited/scared. How long could I maintain this? I kept thinking, you have never run under a 2 hour half and you are on a pace that would let that happen. It was very a weird mix of emotions in terms of “you are going to die” to “just see what you can do and go.”

Beth: The middle of this race I don’t remember all that well.  Probably because I was mainly wondering if I was actually going to end up having a horrible race and slow completely down towards the end or be fine?  So I just kept going.

Miles 6-10

Teal: It was around the 6.5-7ish mark that I moved to running closer to the middle of the road. The race did an out and back and I knew I would start to see Brian or Beth or whoever else and they would give me motivation.  This part of the race seemed so long. The stretch between 5.5 and like 7.5 is up hill, it’s a mild incline, but you can feel it, and it just became annoying. I knew as soon as I saw them that the turnaround would be close and the downhill could begin. I saw Brian pass and then saw Beth not too far behind. I was very confused as to the time and how much was left and I yelled at Beth to pick it up. I for some reason thought we were pretty far off of her 10 mile PR.  (PS.. we completely were not at all, but in my head it was bad, which then confused me because my miles were so close to 9min) I have no clue why I couldn’t sort that out. It was around 7 that my butt muscles were super tight! Like I really just wanted to stop and stretch but I wasn’t about to stop. I just started pushing on my butt hoping it would loosen up. I am sure people around me were like “What the hell is she doing?” I knew that this was not as bad as the women I had passed at mile 7 with her entire butt hanging out. I mean EVERYTHING! It was nasty!

After hitting mile 9 I said to myself, just go. It’s just a mile, just go. I had kind of figured out at this point that I would finish between 1:30 and 1:32 and got really excited! I crossed the finish line and just wanted to die. I kicked it in the last .25 and it was painful. I crossed the finish line, saw Beth and Brian and really just wanted to die. My tail bone was killing me. It really kind of freaked me out.  Every step I took around the Runner’s Village, to the car, and in and out of the car where so painful. My leg was shooting pain and I wasn’t so much convinced my butt wasn’t about to split in half.

Beth: These last miles I do remember. Ha, I remember seeing the turn around for the 10K races and the guy at that turn around saying “10 milers your turn around is just a bit further” LIES! In my world more than 2 miles away is not “a bit further.”  Feel free to call me an idiot, but I actually didn’t realize we were running up a slow incline. Ha.  And I just kept wanting to be at the turnaround! I kept watching for Brian because I knew that would mean I was close and when I finally saw him I was excited! Then past the turn around for the rest of the race this guy was annoying the crap out of me! OK, I used more not nice words than that, but I don’t want to have to apologize to my mom again. 🙂  He was 100% messing with my mind.  I think he caught up to me then he’d slow down and I’d get a little ahead of him, he’d speed up to catch me again and then slow down again and so on and so forth. FOR TWO MILES.  When we finally got off the Katy Trail to finish out the last mile of the race I got ahead of him for a little while then he caught back up and I was just like whatever dude, and let him stay ahead of me. I knew I would be crossing the finish line with a new PR!  Turns out I took 5:14 off of my only other 10 mile race.  I also told that guy he was messing with my mind afterwards (again, not the words I used) 🙂 and he said no, no, you were pacing me. I wanted to make it in under 1:30.  I told him good job and patted him on the back. OK, fine I guess that’s ok that you messed with my mind so much then??

Pretty much when we finished the misting rain turned into, well, rain.  We headed over to the Runner’s Village and grabbed ourselves a small beer. We both wanted to try a taco from Velvet Taco, so we went straight there to wait in the long line for one of their tacos. DEE-LISH!  Then it started raining harder, we may or may not have had flashbacks to White Rock Marathon and promptly decided to get out of there.  A bummer for the whole try all the tacos and vote on them part of the day.

Just a little soaked from the rain 🙂

Teal: I went home and had the same pain, tried to just shake it off, stretch it to go away and nothing. I ended up not really even sleeping Sunday night and was in and out of tears thinking there was no way I could run a marathon and then proceeded to freak out about what I could say to Beth.

I made a dr’s appointment for first thing Monday when I got to work and had it looked at. It turns out I strained my groin muscle, not a full pull, but she said a deep strain. Apparently when you run faster (which I really haven’t done for that far EVER) your body uses that inner thigh so much more. Whoops??

So needless to say, I knew I was in pain and I wasn’t crazy, and I had just run an awesome race so I am still pumped. I am basically out for a week and have some PT, but I should be fine! Hopefully a week is all it will take! Fingers SUPER crossed!

 

Results:

Teal: 1:31:11, finished 14th in her age group

Beth: 1:27:02, finished 18th in her age group

Overall, we are pleased with how this race went, well, really we are pleased with the month of September it brought us some great PR’s.  It also just goes to show how hard work in those hot summer months really can pay off if you just keep on going and don’t give up on your training even if the hot weather has slowed it down.  These HOT Texas summers are making us tough runners!

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September Recap & October Goals

October 1, 2012 by · 5 Comments

Ahh yah! Look at us, we are posting our goals ON October 1st!  We aren’t complete slackers……well, read on and decide for yourselves! 🙂

Teal:

1. Make Bridesmaid dress fit!

F-: I have no clue, I haven’t tried it on again. Maybe I should do that??

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).

B: I finished and technically the night before so that is better than the last time where I was 15 minutes late and couldn’t shower because I was finishing it on the way out the door!

3. Log food within 100 calories of goal.

B+: I logged 21 days straight and for the most part those days were fairly close to this goal. That was for sure the best month I have had lately in logging food!

4. Not cry on my 30th Birthday!

A+++: I didn’t and now I am 30 and the world has not ended and no one has called me old. And PS: Thank you so everyone for all of the awesome birthday wishes, you made it so much easier to handle!

Beth:

1. Run 20 miles a week.

F: Only one week out of the whole month I actually made 20 miles and that was this last week. :-/ At least I did it once instead of not at all??

Daily Mile monthly log

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

A+: I didn’t! Everyone is still alive! I did cry a couple times, but again, everyone is still alive!

Joint:

1. Figure out and finalize our marathon training plan!

A+: We did and we even signed up for a few races to go along with it! Check out our Race Schedule page if you want to join us for some races.

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

A+: We both PR’d at TDF, so we definitely count that as a good, strong race!!

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This month since things will reeeeally be crazy since Beth & Brent’s wedding is only 26 days away we are joining forces and only having joint goals! They are:

1. Complete the Tyler Rose half marathon for our 3rd race in the 4 seasons challenge. It’s coming up October 7th!

2. Start marathon training!

3. Get Beth married!

photo courtesy of Jeffrey Lynch

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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.

(source)

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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Tasty Tuesday: Bridal Shower Foods

September 18, 2012 by · 7 Comments

You might have seen yesterday, that this weekend was Beth’s bridal shower thrown by the bridesmaids and since I’m a bridesmaid (highly doubt you would have missed that by now) I had a job to do. I volunteered to do the dessert part of our spread.

Kate (Beth’s sister) had us all pick what we wanted to do so I chose Cake balls and Oreo cookie balls. I’m on Pinterest so I totally thought it would be doable. I am going to give you the recipes and the how to make said cake balls, and even a few pointers of what they do when they completely fail at 10pm the night before the shower and a race you have to wake up at 5 o’clock to get to!

Kate is also blogging today about the other shower snacks! You can find that information over on her blog! You should totally check it out for any future snacking you would like to partake in and/or some other awesome recipes!

Oreo Cake Balls

1 package of oreos
1 8 oz package of cream cheese softened
White melting chocolate (for your sanity DO NOT buy this kind )
You really should probably buy this kind instead (trust me!)

How to:

Crush the Oreos in a blender, or if you are angry at the world you could pound them with a hammer. Just make sure they are as small as you can get it.

Mix in the entire package of cream cheese. It will end up being a ball of cookie mush.

Ball the mixture into the size you would like and then place in the refrigerator. I would recommend freezing them over night because when they are not hard enough they fall through the sticks and it is a holy annoying mess. You could also just never put them on sticks and life might be easier.

So you might guess, the next step is to place them on sticks and dip them in the melting chocolate and you are done.

Hint: Keep refrigerated until you are ready to serve if they are on sticks they won’t stay!

Cakeballs

Cake Mix
Icing
Melting chocolate (again use the candy melts not the other one)

How to:

Bake the cake using the regular directions. Once baked, let cool and crumble the cake into the smallest pieces that you can.

Mix in the icing- the original way I saw this was to use the entire jar of icing, I think this was part of the reason that these bad boys didn’t work, sooooo in the future I will probably use about half so that they are not as moist (eww I hate that word)!

Once mixed, ball the cake and freeze. Once frozen dip in the melted chocolate and you are done!

Hint: too much icing in the mix, not freezing and only refrigerating, and using the wrong chocolate will give you a holy mess that looks much like the picture! While my cake balls failed miserably, I did figure out how to fix them by using the hints above.

If all else fails you could always get your husband on the phone with every Starbucks that will wait for you to get there before they close and ask them for all their cake balls. Then you can buy melting chocolate and cover them in whatever color you need. See! No one would ever know!

I figured I would include some extra pics of the shower just because it was so cute! Beth also has a super crafty Sister in law (She blogs too- Shocking, I know) Tiffany made tons of cute decoration pieces and snacks as well!

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So there you have it! The showering aspect of our weekend! 🙂  Please be advised we are not claiming cake balls are healthy….we are sharing the recipe and parts of our lives right now with you. Ha. Tomorrow we’ll finally let you  know ALLLL about Tour des Fleurs! 🙂

Oh, and additionally it should be noted that Teal’s Oreo cakeballs were WAY BETTER than Starbucks! Sorry Starbucks! We know we are already kind of a traitor to you with our Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf obsession! Only 10 more days until a CBTL opens in Dallas! 🙂  Ok, that’s all from us for real now.

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Racing & Showering!

September 17, 2012 by · 5 Comments

Yes, our weekend included a little bit of both of those things! 🙂  Our race this weekend took us to the Dallas Arboretum where there is currently a Chihuly exhibit, so we got to see a few of his installations there.

Us with our friend Bitner waiting around for the 10K part of Tour des Fleurs to start.

After the race we all rushed back to Beth’s house to get showered and cleaned up for a wedding shower hosted by the Bridesmaids.  Just one of the MANY cute decorations at the shower.

We clean up nice don’t we?? 🙂

How was your weekend? Did you race? Get in a training run? Or just take it easy?

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Tour des Fleurs Pre-Race Thoughts

September 14, 2012 by · 5 Comments

Like we mentioned in our latest goal post, we plan to race the hell out of this 10k! 🙂  It is our intention to follow the Run Less Run Faster marathon training plan this time around and we will use the Tour des Fleurs 10K to set our training paces.

This will be Teal’s 3rd time and Beth’s 5th time to run this race. We really like it, ok? Although, Race Director, we really liked it when you gave us hats at the end of the race and you disappointed last year when you quit that. Hint. Hint.Anyway, last year we took a break from the 10K distance and tried for the 20K as it fit in with some extra miles into our 2011 marathon training plan.  This year we are back for the 10K distance.  Our PRs for this distance currently stand at:

Teal: 56:41

Beth: 56:46

So we’ll see what we can do out there this weekend! Right now there is a 30% chance of rain for race day and looks like we’ll have temperatures in the mid to high 60s!  Have a great weekend!

Are you racing this weekend? Or what does your training schedule call for? We want to know!

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Calling All Tour des Fleurs Racers

September 13, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

There have been  a few of you out there that have mentioned to us that you are running Tour des Fleurs and so are we!

The sad thing about this is the moment we are finished with the 10K we will be booking it out of there to get back to  Beth’s so we can shower and be all purdy for a wedding shower.

Why are we telling you all of this? Well, we would reeeeally like to see people there, so if you happen to get there early we will be at the arboretum at 6:45 a.m. and hanging out by the area where bands normally play.

Look for us in our orange Lululemon skirts again and possibly the same top? We just discussed wearing the same skirt! =)

 

If we happen to not see you before TDF we wish you the best of luck and send you speedy vibes!

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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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