Five Things Friday

June 29, 2012 by · 3 Comments

1. HAPPY FRIDAY!!!  So excited yet another weekend is here!!

2. It’s June 29th that means tomorrow is the LAST day of our Tone It Up Challenge for June!!

If you have been participating in our challenge then please send us a copy of your June calendar with all of your push ups and planks no later than Tuesday, July 3rd.  We will announce our big winner of the challenge at the end of next week!!  Good luck and thank you for participating!!

3. We might be a little MIA, but have no fear – we are still here!  Teal is teaching summer school, getting ready for her exciting new school year in a new job and keeping up with her part time job at Mower Medic!

4.  Beth is still doing the 9-5 job she does regular, her little side social media stuff for a business and planning away at that wedding!

5.  Because we can’t help ourselves we shall leave you with this….enjoy!

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In the mean time thanks for bearing with us!  We promise we’ll return to a sense of normalcy around here soon and very soon! Have a great weekend! What’s on your running agenda?

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Tasty Tuesday: Mason Jar Salads

June 12, 2012 by · 11 Comments

I am sure you guys have seen these if you are on Pinterest at all, but I really hadn’t paid much attention to them until I got to start actually eating lunch with adults at school again! My friend from work came in with her salad in a mason jar and I wanted to try it! Here it is in steps! I am super excited about this, I used to bring my salads in a plastic bag but this seams way easier with the dressing and everything!

I bought 12 mason jars for less than 10 bucks- I am just using the extra as cups!  Then follow these steps:

  1. Place your favorite dressing at the very bottom: I used Newman’s Own Organic Balsamic
  2. Place something that can be used as a barrier and you wouldn’t mind being soaked in the dressing- I used bell pepper
  3. Layer on what you want! These salads have mushrooms, red onions, cherry tomatoes, craisins, and ½ cup of cooked quinoa
  4. After you have placed in everything you want pile in as much lettuce as you can fit! I used an organic spring mix!
  5. Store and eat. Everything I have found says that they will keep for a week!

Nutrition info in case you were curious brought to you by myfitnesspal

292 calories

58 carbs- if this is too high for you take out the craisins: they have 25 grams

6 grams of fat

7 grams of protein

**Advocare Note: If you make this recipe during your 10 day cleanse you’ll need to count quinoa as your one carb for the day AND for salad dressing you’ll need to use either oil & vinegar or lime juice**

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Wounded Warrior 10K

June 11, 2012 by · 8 Comments

This weekend was another solo race weekend….well, kind of!  Teal was off at a friend’s wedding in the Dominican Republic and I was still here in Tejas! 🙂  I might have driven to the Wounded Warrior race alone, but managed to see some friends out there!  Before I could even get out of my car I saw my friends Ashley & Jason walk by.  Somehow I always miss them at races so I jumped out of my car as fast as I could to catch up with them.  I’d also planned on meeting up with a few other twitter ladies, but sadly we didn’t all see each other! :-/  We’ll have to work on that again for another race, Caron & Kyra!!  But it was SO good to meet Shannon as well as your mom and Cory!

Totally stole this picture from Shannon! 🙂

The half marathon started 15 minutes before the 10k, so we all parted ways.  I walked up to see the half marathoners take off and chatted with a mom and her daughter who were also doing the 10K.  Loved hearing about how her other daughter was running the half and she had gotten them into doing races.  They’d driven up from Katy (Houston area) to participate in the Wounded Warrior race.  The mom told me she would probably be the last person finished.  I quickly told her I doubted it and with her run walk method she had she would be ahead of others.  I was proud of her when I saw her on the back part of my race and there were plenty of people behind her.  I quickly gave her a high five and told her good job and to keep it up!

Anyways, back to the start of this race, I had run this same race last year and kind of knew what I was getting into.  I just kept thinking let’s get this done and over with before it’s reeeally hot out there.  Off we were!  Within the first half of a mile I realized they had made the course different this year which was nice because it created less direct sunlight as a lot of it was on the Campion Trail in Irving.  I ran without any sort of water on me, but grabbed some at each water stop.

Thanks to my Runkeeper app I knew I was coming up on the 3.1 mark and therefore the turnaround because I might have missed it.  I didn’t need to make this a longer race than it was suppose to be like I did Too Hot to Handle last year! Ha, but there was only a small sign that said turn around.  Not a human being there to reassure you that you do in fact need to turn around.  Turn around here? Or like this is my warning sign that it’s coming up??  A barefoot man in front of me yelled TURN AROUND and I then said this is really the turn around??  But I followed his lead and figured if I needed to I could just admit to all of you I accidentally cut my run short.  That is probably my one and only complaint about the race, but I think the Race Director does such a good job with this one that I can let it slide. 🙂

Once I turned around I kind of had a need to vomit feeling hanging around me for the last three miles.  I just wanted to be finished with the heat.  I drank water, dumped water on myself, took cold towels from the awesome volunteers and kept chugging along.  When I got off the Campion Trail I was in the home stretch for the finish line.  I kept telling myself to push but not so hard that you do in fact vomit.  Well, guess I did push too hard bc in the last .1 of a mile I had to pull over to the side and you know…vomit not once, not twice, but three times. Ha.  See I knew my pace had a potential for a new PR, so I was having an inner struggle of get that PR yet don’t kill yourself.

I didn’t get a PR yesterday and I’m completely OK with that.  I crossed the finished line running with 2 minutes and some change until the hour mark and I’m proud of that.  If you look at my results online I finished 10th in my age group and 170th overall and I’m proud of that!  If you look at the ladies who finished 8th and 9th in my age group even if I hadn’t have had to make my little stop before the finish line I wouldn’t have gotten there faster than them and would have still been 10th in my age group.

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Thanks to April who got to see my fun incident right before the finish for checking on me!  I got some water, powerade and pop ice in me and was feeling MUCH better!  I absolutely love that they provide pop ice at the end of this race!  Love it so much I ate three of them!

After that I hung around to see if I might see anyone else that I know plus I knew Ashley was around somewhere with their cute dog, Atlas, since she’s sidelined from running right now. 🙁  Hoping your recovery time heals you up all the way, lady!  Overall, it was fun just sitting and watching people finish and the soliders that were out there.  Love this race! It is for such a good cause that even though it’s freakin’ hot in Texas in June it still draws a crowd!  This was the Wounded Warrior Half Marathon & 10K’s third year and drew in over 3,000 runners and doubled their fundraising this year from last to over $50,000 raised for the Semper Fi fund.

I ran into Jason, Ashley & Atlas again after Jason completed his half.  Congrats to you on a new PR and completing a half in that heat!  So impressed with everyone that goes out there and runs the half in that toasty weather!

If you are in the Dallas area you should really consider adding this race to your schedule for next year!  Like I said it’s for a great cause, but it is also a race that is put on really well!

Do you have a race that you go back to every year that despite everything else the cause gets you signed up again and again?

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May Report Card & Holy Cow it’s Time for June Goals!!

June 8, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Yah, yah, yah…we are a little late to get this up, but we are started on June goals already! Have no fear! A lot has been going on over in our parts of the world as we are sure it has been with lots of you too! Anyways, let’s get on with it…

Teal:

1.  Lose 5 more lbs. I have tons of motivation right now because I will be on the beach June 6-11 for one of my best friend’s weddings in the Dominican Republic! C: lost 2-3ish depends on what time you weigh me (don’t you love that) BUT on a side note I am back to where I was before the marathon!!

2. Ok, I’m just going to change this yoga goal. The goal is to go 3 times per week. After looking back on the last 2 months I think this is doable and still a stretch.  I had a 6 time month and a 5 time month so hopefully just 3 a week will be a big enough push that is actually time possible!  B: Close… I went to yoga 9 times. So basically 3 short, not bad for a crazy month!

3. Stop skipping my morning workouts. My gym buddy and I got a little off track due to crazy lives and schedules. The goal is to go all 5 mornings. I had done this for over a year so it’s doable, just need to get back in the routine! I have been going at night more, but it’s not as easy to do and gets in the way of my yoga goal! Domino effect-boooo!!  UMMMMM, not 100% sure how to grade this, I worked out the same and went most mornings, it is just sooo much easier to go at night when I don’t have grad school or something else. I did most of the runs at night but still went about 3 days a week in the morning, PLUS, if you remember from earlier in the year, I wanted to do more weights alone…. DONE!! Feeling so much better about this, well except for the super creepy guy who told me my aura was beautiful. What??

4. Be nicer! I am not evil, but stress has taken over this month with preparing for graduation, looking and interviewing for counseling jobs, planning showers and events, tax season at my dad’s, state testing for schools, blah blah blah. I have NOT been the picture of niceness at all and have become way more annoyed at things than normal. I am not sure how I am going to actually do this or prove it, but I’ll come up with something and let you know how it goes at the end of May!  B-: Ok I was nicer for sure. I did some random things, that at least made me feel nicer including, walking to teacher friends to talk instead of email, putting shopping carts back in the shopping cart thing even if they weren’t mine,  waved at the people in my neighborhood when we passed each other in cars, I never once honked my horn, I bought the lady’s order behind me at Starbucks in the drive through line, and I just got a better attitude about work and stuff like that. Not too shabby BUT I still have a lot of room!

Beth:

1. I’m still chasing those 5 pounds to lose! Ha, one day…one. freakin’. day. I will be able to say I did it so. This goal is sticking! C: I lost two pounds! Haha

2. Survive my first 10 mile race!  I’m currently freaked out by this distance since I’ve never raced it and it is getting hotter down here in Texas!  A+: I DID survive!! It was a hot one, but I did the White Rock ‘n’ Roll 10 miles!

sprintin’ it in!

3. My wedding related goal is super vague, but the goal is to have at least 3 items on my checklist marked off and report back to you what I’ve accomplished them! B-:  I have a CAKE!!! 🙂  I also bought all the supplies for two projects I am working on and while that doesn’t seem like much of a feat, well, it is in my world! Finding time to work, workout and get to stores before they close is hard for me! Ha.  I’ve also done a lot of research into decorations I want to use, so while it would be amazing if I was further along I am proud of where I am!

This isn’t really what my cake looks like – I got more of a simple yet elegant look to mine! 🙂

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4. I want to continue on with my preparing food for the week on Sunday’s goal, but to make it different the goal here is to find two new recipes this month and make them! Must add variety to what I’ve been doing! F:  I did do a lot of food prep in the month of May, however, I only ended up finding one new recipe that I wanted to try and then I didn’t even try it. Ha! I’m not going to make this a goal for next month, but I will make the recipe I have and find at least another to try soon! So help me God!

My extra goals each month – a. Hill workouts weekly! I actually hosted hill runs in the month of May for NTX Runners, but Teal had to cover one of my hill runs because I was sick. :-/  Which means I did 4 hill runs in the 5 weeks of May.  b. Read two books a month.  Well, I actually finished 3 books in May! 🙂  I was a busy reader!  I finished The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust’s Shadow by Krystyna Chiger, Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

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Joint Goal:

We will be participating in #runchat’s May challenge which is pretty much to run a different route, a new trail or try a race you have never done before.  For more information please visit the #runchat site.  Beth & Brent found a trail area by his house to explore during this month.  You might remember it from Wordless Wednesday No. 25

Onward to June goals….How are we in the 6th month of this year?!?

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!?

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

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

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!

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!!

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!

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.

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

Joint Goal:

We are doing and have asked YOU to participate with us in our Tone It Up Challenge for the month where we do as many days of pushups and planks!

Hope you all have are working hard on your June goals and have a fabulous month! Check back with you when it’s July!  But July please do not come TOO FAST!

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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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DRC Bloomin’ 4 Mile Race

June 5, 2012 by · 6 Comments

 

Yep, you see that right, 4 miles. This was definitely a first for me in terms of race distance. I was slightly nervous because the last 5k we ran, we both wanted/did vomit so I had no real idea about how hard or fast to run 4 miles.  I didn’t set any goals, no need. It’s a free race if you are a DRC member and I figured it would be super low key and fun.

Beth ended up getting some kind of stomach bug and was out of work for two days so she decided Saturday morning to sit this one out too. I don’t blame her at all. She texted me early to make sure I knew and was fine. I was nervous because I have never been to a race completely alone before. Eeek! Had to be a big girl and go alone.

Luckily as soon as I got there I saw a familiar face! Jesus, who runs a lot of the hill work with us and is a fellow NTX Runner was in the parking lot getting his stuff ready for a warm-up! While Jesus went out for a warm-up I just hung out in my car. I was way too early. I was there at 7 for an 8 o’clock race because I was worried about my bib. No need, DRC had everything out, organized, and easy to get to!

Eight o’clock sharp the race started. I had decided that I would figure out my pace after I saw how I felt. Mile one was great! Mile 2 felt the same, 3 was ehhh, and 4 was awesome. Here are my splits!

The course was super flat, except for one small area in the middle, but that was nothing compared to our hill work. The weather was awesome in Texas. The sun was fortunately still hiding behind the clouds and there was a slight breeze!

Overall results:

8th in age group

169/497 overall

Gun: Chip: Name City
0:34:29 0:33:55 Teal Perez Carrollton

Jesus snapped these pics at the end! Thanks Jesus!!  I actually felt really good, surprisingly good. I haven’t really felt that way in a long time, running lately has been hard for me, I haven’t felt like doing it, and it hasn’t seemed to be coming easy at all, so I was very happy with this race! Hope that feeling continues!

 

 

Have you ever run a 4 mile race? What is the craziest distance you have ever run before for a race?

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