This was from my run last night! Right now I’m on an endorphin high and it’s because I’m finally getting into a routine of running. I cannot lie, fitting it all in for me is a very hard task. I work around 55 to 60 hours a week, I try to spend time with B when he’s actually home from work, since his schedule changes so often, I have friends and family that I try to see as often as possible and I do try to do my hair every day so I don’t look completely homeless. I try to cook and clean as much as possible around the house and sometimes it’s just a lot.

I struggle with dealing with the disappointment of skipping a run. In the past I would get really discouraged when I missed a run and would let it really derail my training. This time around I’m taking it all day by day and working my hardest to fit it in and still have a happy medium with my social life. I sometimes try to fit too much in and beat myself up over it, which isn’t fair to anyone. Running is fun, it brings me happiness and allows me to clear my mind but running isn’t my entire life. I need to remember balance and that missing a run isn’t going to completely ruin my training. I need to remember than when I spend time at home when B, or decide to take the dogs for walk instead of going for a run, I’m not ruining my training plan, instead I’m enriching my life.

Last week I was really happy with my mileage of 22 miles for the week. It’s been a long time that I’ve ran that much in a week. I have to get in 30 miles this week and I’m 1/3 of the way there already with 10 miles under my belt thus far.

Doing double days is difficult for me, but I know it’s going to all pay off when Ragnar comes around and I will be running on tired legs, quite a few times. I also know it will help with the Dick’s Pittsburgh Half two weeks after and I won’t be feeling tired and hopefully my legs will be fresh! I do know that when I am feeling a bit down, I watch the #runfor videos… they always are so inspiring and I would be lying to say I don’t look forward to them each week!

Monday I ran with B in the evening (he hates running) and I did a double day running 4 miles in the morning and 4 miles at night yesterday. My legs didn’t feel terrible after my morning run or my evening run and with Wednesday being my planned rest day I felt pretty normal. If I had time to go for a run I would have today.

Tomorrow I have another long morning run of 7 miles and then Friday I have a shorter run, which I want to push the pace on. I want to run hard for 5 miles just to see where I’m at. Saturday I’m going to do another 8 mile long run in the morning and Sunday I will take a rest day for family activities and celebrating Easter! I would like to do a double day on Sunday, but it’s just not in the cards.

I have still been foam rolling a lot, and it seems to be helping my IT Band. My confidence is finally back and I feel completely normal when I run, instead of being so worried about how my legs are going to feel afterward. It’s a freeing feeling.

I’m just so happy to be pain free and able to run.

xoxo

I really didn’t want to get up for Wednesday’s morning run. I knew once I started I would feel better but knowing you have to run 7 miles before 7:30 am, is tough. When you start in the dark, it’s hard to imagine that when you get home you’ll have seen the sunrise and have been up for over an hour and half! As they say, you never regret a workout… but it’s starting that workout that’s so hard!

As I left this morning I knew once I was done, I would be feeling so much better and the miles started to tick by slowly. One mile, two mile, I knew at 3 miles I only had 4 more to go, and then it was just a 5K. Since high school I’ve always split my miles up like that because it makes it easier to think of shorter distances than longer ones.

My shoes finally bit the dust on this run, with over 450 miles on them, and I wasn’t running too fast but I was pretty tired by mile 6. I find that when I run in the morning I am more tired and slower than if I run in the evenings. I knew I had one more mile to get it done though, and that pushed me forward! This week I ran 22 miles, which is a great number for me right now! I also did two long runs to help prepare me for Ragnar and the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.

I did come home to this though….

BAD GEORGE!

I finally have my confidence back and it feels so good to be getting back into a routine!

xoxo

Ever since I started following the Dick’s Sporting Goods Facebook page after deciding to run the Pittsburgh Half Marathon, I’ve been impressed by their social media and the videos they are doing for what you ‘run for’. These showcase some of the runners that will be running the Pittsburgh Marathon! After the first one I was blown away by how good they were and how touching it was. I thought to myself, well that’s going to be a hard one to top! Then I saw this one.

Though I didn’t experience loss like Sally did, I did experience a loss in my family when I lost my mom and this video had me in tears. It’s shared the same feelings that she did when her husband died, and when I saw their story, I had a pit in my throat. I run for the same thing! Running in general allows me to clear my mind and just like they said in the video, sort things out that you wouldn’t normally think about.

Watch this video… it will inspire you and you’ll really enjoy your next run. (If you want to see the first one you can see it here too!) They will be posting 13 videos leading up to race day and I’m going to watch all of them because during my training runs I really think about what I run for and how important running is to me.

Such an amazing story. I #runfor me. For peace of mind. For Clarity and for life.

xoxo

After last weekend, I pretty much feel like this that it’s still light when I get home because I’ve been able to get in a lot of running! Finally now that I’m back in training, I’ve been tracking my mileage and making sure I get it done. I’m not only training for Ragnar… but I’m also going to be running the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May and I’m SO excited about it! I haven’t had this kind of motivation in a while and I feel like I am in a good mental and physical place to train. Last Saturday I ran the Lakewood 5K, which was also a great benchmark to where I am right now.

This week I ran 2 miles on Monday, 4 miles on Tuesday, 3.5 miles on Wednesday,  walked 2 miles on Friday and ran 3 mile interval on the treadmill on Saturday.

Yesterday I was really nervous but knew that I had to get a long run in to start building up my mileage. I decided to get powered up by some serious carbo loading and downed some buffalo wings, green beer and cheese fries. I also wanted to run in the evening to get used to running at different times of the day. I ran 7 miles and even though I hesitated a few times to keep going throughout the run, I felt great!

I came home and immediately foam rolled my it band and lower back since they were both a tad tighter than usual, but I’m glad I was able to run that far with no issues. When I got to about mile 3 I started to get my stride and feel comfortable. I’m feeling more and more excitement for Ragnar and Pittsburgh!

xoxo

This past weekend Shea and I had a chance to go to a super fun wedding event called, The Cream. Weird name but really cool event! It was at the Vibiana in Los Angeles, and the weather was absolutely perfect!

I actually won two tickets from Found Vintage Rentals… Who randomly enough did my wedding as well! Cream was pretty amazing. Tons of great vendors, ideas and great inspiration for parties and weddings. Needless to say, I’m not planning my wedding, since that already happened… but maybe someone else’s soon? Fingers crossed, no pressure ;)

The vendors had so many awesome things out, from inspiration tables, to dessert tables, awesome photography stations, and tons of giveaways and creativeness. Here are just a few of the photos I took with my iPhone camera, it doesn’t even show how fun the entire event was!

Overall, it was really fun and the swag bag is ammmmmmazing! I’m so glad that I won the tickets from Found Rentals. You can see a list of all the vendors that were there right here, if you’re interested!

xoxo