10 Things Thursday

Busy, busy, busy! That is how I explain my week. I had a hard time falling asleep last night..I think it was because I was so anxious to get my run in for the week. Pathetic, but some nights all I can do is dream about my run the night before...and the oatmeal I will eat he he he.
This mornings run was A-W-E-S-O-M-E...and my body feels it now. Every once and a while, my right hip starts to hurt during my run. Today was one of those every once in a whiles. In the middle of my run it started to hurt, not an overbearing hurt, just more of an annoying dull pain. Near the end of my run, it faded off as my body adjusted. I .was able to complete a 5.5 mile run ending at a speed of 6.5. Wahoo! Secretly, after my run I walked into another room in my gym and danced in front of the mirrors, my endorphins were still high.
As the morning went along my hip started to hurt again, as it is know. I am a little worried about this. I would hate to have it it worse before my marathon. Tomorrow is a cross training day so that should give it some rest. I really don't think I am over training, I try to stick to running every other day as opposed to every day until my body adjust to the poundage. I googled some stretches to hopefully help with the dull pain.
The weather here has gone to snowy and a high of 20, that calls for me, a warm coffee and my couch with Cooper tonight. I am stoked for my 9 miler that I am going to try to hit Saturday at the gym.
With creating my blog, I am trying to get unique with what I write about. I have started the what I wish for Wednesdays (which I did not get too yesterday) and my newest addition will be Ten Thing Thursday. Every Thursday I am going to tell you 10 things about me.
So here goes:

1. In High school I was a cheerleader, ran track and did the swim team, but I never really succeeded in any lol.
2. I was born in Iowa, a small town called Clarinda.
3. I love, love, love yogurt! My fridge holds up to around 30 containers each week, I go through each a day.
4. My favorite flavor of yogurt is vanilla.
5. I have to allow myself to only bring 6 pieces of gum with me everyday, don't ask me why the number is 6...if I bring a whole pack I can promise it will be gone! I am a gum addict.
6. My longest run in my lifetime was 2 hours and 23 minutes.
7. This will be my first half marathon this spring.
8. This is my fourth year being an elementary school teacher.
9. I don't wear heels to work because I am too lazy, I prefer my converse all stars!
10. I have one older brother who is 29 years old.
That's a little about me! Tomorrow is Friday!!
Chels

When Will Spring Come?

So living in Nebraska I can usually except to see one day up in the 60's and the next in the 20's. Last week we had highs up to about 60 and now we are back in the below 20's. I am dying to start some outside runs and I refuse to run in the cold, I know I am a baby and my immune system sucks. This weather makes for a glumy week :( Of course the weather turns bad when I have a week of moving ahead of me. Well actually, I am moving right across the hall in my apartment complex to a three bedroom apartment and Craig is the one that is moving in with me.



A Little Bit About Me and Craig....

Craig and I have been together for about 2 years. We met two summers during the Collage World Series. Now, technically we met at on Match.com emailing back and forth. That night, we noticed each other and ended up talking which pushed us towards exchanging phone numbers and the rest is history. For the first year of our relationship I was living in Omaha working in a school district and Craig was living in Columbus working as a seed dealer. A job opportunity brought him to Blair Nebraska, and I followed him. Well after being together for quite a while, we have chosen to move in with each other, hence we have a little more work to deal with now that we are taking care of a puppy. I am a little nervous about this move for the following reasons:
-I have never lived with anyone besides my parents and my older brother
-I can do some strange things (eating a protein shake in the bathtub)
-I am such a type A person! For example dust on furniture drives me insane, dishes in the sink unwashed, used towels laying around...I could go on forever
-During the week I am out by 9pm, since I get up at 4am to workout, I need my beauty sleep. Craig is more of a night owl.
Although I did list these reasons, I am not too concerned, we spend alot and I mean ALOT of time together. Just anything with change, I have a hard time adjusting too....I will keep you updated and I may need to vent a few times, lol!

So in regards to my running, I am a little upset over the fact that I did not get a chance to update my mileage this weekend ( I have no Internet until Craig moves in). On my daily mileage posted on my blog, I am unable to go back and add miles. So here is the recap of my past weekend:
Friday: 81/2 miles!!!
Saturday: Cross training-5 miles on elliptical
Sunday: 5 mile run
I am pretty impressed, originally I had planned on tapering down last week, but I felt great I just increased my long run by 1/2 a mile.
Today as I was running my usual 5 miler, I had some goals in mind for next week. Usually I do three runs a week, plus a long run and one day of cross training. I have no intentions of switching that up, due to the fact that I am training for a half. In the meantime, I would like to increase my weekly mileage on my runs during the week and work on a little more speed. Next week I would like my 5 miler on Tuesday to focus on increasing speed:
2 Miles 5.9-6.0
2 miles 6.0-6.1
Final Mile, increase up to 6.5
I am not sure how accurate I do things, but I have been reading up on my running. Ever since I started running back in collage, I have always had this thing of running back and forth with my paces. For example: 1st minute at 5.9 2nd minute at 6.0 3rd minute at 5.9 4th minute at 6.0
Don't ask me why I do this, and I am sure there is really no beneficial need for this, I think it might be a way for me to beat boredom on the treadmill because I am consistently pushing a button every minute. Now, when it comes to outdoor runs...(which I will seriously start doing once the weather gets a little better) there is no need for me to do this. I think this is just one of my Type A doings.
The other 5 miler I would like to increase to 5.5 mile for two weeks and then up to 6. I did read that they say you can be able to increase your mileage safely each week by up to 10%. So I will increase my long run to 9 miles and a weekly run from 5 to 5.5. I think I am safe :)

What are some of your Type A tendencies?

A Long Few Days

Isn't Cooper just the cutest thing. Yes he may be cute, but quite the puppy he is! Yesterday, Craig had to work all day so he was not able to come and pick Cooper up during the day. Well I had a nice little set up for him in the back room with his doggie gate to block him from going into the living room. I came home around 5 to find his doggy gate removed and Cooper running around the living room. I turn to my left and there is my computer with chords hanging from it! Cooper had got ahold of my ipod connector. Now you may ask how he got out to begin with, well Craig had got off work a little early and decided to bring him out, assuming everything was put up away from him. Ahhh, the puppy trails.

I am here at school right now, blogging when I should be grading papers....but I figure I will be here till about 9 tonight due to conferences and then tomorrow I will be in my room for another 5 hours, ahhh the papers can wait.

Last night I could not sleep at all. I was out cold, ,then around 3am in the morning I woke up and could not shut my mind off. I knew today was going to be a long day, and I should have rested today but I really wanted to get my run in this morning. By 8:00 tonight, talking to parents, I am going to be ready to crash. Considering, how pathetic this sounds, 8:30 is usually my bedtime on a school night. When you have to get up at 4am you make time for your sleep! I am already looking forward to coming home to Cooper and cuddiling up into my bed for a short nights rest before we do it all over again tomorrow. I opted for my rest day to be tomorrow, I figured I would be way more tired to run tomorrow morning than I would today. I am not sure how things will pan out for Friday. My hopes are to get a longer run in, mabey a 7 miler. I have no intentions of doing an 8 miler until next weekend.

This past weekend, Craig got a huge bucket from a local farmer of soy beans. So we rinsed them dried and baked them to make soy nuts. I put splenda and salt on them to add some taste. I was a little dissappointed with the outcome, some were hard and others were still moist. I prfer they be from a bag. Now I am stuck with a gazillion soy nuts to eat up!
So while I am here and have plenty of time on my hands I am going to start a Wishful Wednesdays Trend.
3 Things I Wish

1. I wish the snow would melt already, so everywhere I step outside in the parking lot is not in a puddle.

2. I wish Cooper would become potty trained, I am sick of being on my hands and knees daily scrubbing the floors.

3. I wish Winter would leave and Spring would come already!

What are three things you wish for on this Wednesday??

Anyone else ever put work aside to do some well needed blogging?

Happy Valentines!

Wow what a day it has been! This was our last party of the year, thank goodness. I am a little bummed, I left my camera plug in at home so I will have to upload pictures another time. Some of my students boxes turned out to be ADORABLE!

I woke up this morning and was pumped to get to school so I could go online and sign up for the Lincoln Half Marathon. Come to find the regestration is already full :( This totally bummed me out, so I settled for another 1/2 nearby in Papillion on the 15th of May. I just had my heart set on the Lincoln because it is so popular. Anyone who is a runner in the Nebraska area always runs this race, I should have known better then to wait this long to sign up. Ah well, a race is a race right?

So today was filled with candy hearts, bingo games, valentine cards, card making, and cup cake eating. Valentine's day is always my favorite holiday, I love all the pink and red and the hearts. Yes I am a sap.

This weekend Craig and I went out for our Valentine's Day dinner at Bone Fish Bar and Grill. I had a huge plate of Edaname ( I swear the stuff is like crack) and then a Salmon salad....and a few glasses of wine :)

Then to make our dinner even more special, some customers were complaining of their seats so the Chef asked us if we could move. This was not a big deal at all, so we switched tables and ended up getting our whole meal paid for! It was quite the nice dinner.

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the day deep cleaning from puppy mess. Vacumed, dusted, took Cooper out on several walks. I also did some well needed baking. Cooked up some hard boiled eggs, grilled my chicken, made rice crispy treats for the kiddos at school today, roasted soy nuts. All in all, I managed to make my smoke alarm go off only three times from all the baking and high temps in my small apartment. Don't think my neighbors were too keen on that one.

This morning was a 5 miler on the tredmill. Pretty good run but my legs were stiff and sore afterwords, I think they are still recovering from my long 8 miler on Saturday. I am still in awe of my accomplishment, I love saying it "I ran 8 miles." Okay I am a geek. Got to go!

I will post some of my baking episode pics tomorrow :)

Chels

Saturday-Another Long Run Behind Me

I am very proud of my accomplishments this morning I must add. As I walked into the gym today I had my mind set to 7.5 miles, hence last week I completed 7 miles. Latley, I have been noticing that during my long runs it has been harder to keep going once I hit the 6 miler. My guess was that my pace was too fast. I have been running my long runs at the same pace as my training runs. So I slowed down my pace from a 10 minute miler to a 10.20-10.15 pace. At mile 6 I felt pretty darn good, grabbed my gaterode and took a swig, re-set the tredmill and easily finised the last two miles ending at a 9.50 pace.
This was also something I decided to add, some electrolytes to my run to give me an extra spark near the end of my run, it seemed to really awake my legs and help me through my last few miles. My training plan calls for a 10k race next weekend, but there are not any around here. So I am thinking I go back down and just do a 6 miler this week and then the following week continue with my plan and running a 8.5 miler.
If you are wondering, I started training at the end of January and my half is not until the first weekend in May. I am doing a 12 week training plan and doubling it. So each week and I am doing twice. That way, I dont risk the chance of bumping my miles up too soon. Also, my plan calls for a 10 miler to be my longest run. So far, from the looks at my training, I think I will be able to complete at least a 11 miler and mabey a 12 before my half. I hate going into the race with not at least completing a run a little closer to 13 miles. I know they say that your body will push you through those last couple of miles you are expected to run, but I like to be a little more mentally prepared.
So this morning was mainly taken up by my long run and then taking Cooper out for two long walks. He is not used to his leash yet, so these short walks turn into about 20 minute walks with me fighting against him to keep moving and not spend hours rolling in the snow. After his walks, I gave him a good scrub in the bath tub which he seemed to like. He was an absolute mess. The weather outside is GORGEOUS, a high of 40!! But, because of the weather, all the snow is melting so Cooper has been a yucky mess.
Tonight Craig has made reservations to a special place to celebrate our Valentine's Day. I am super excited, plus it is Saturday night, WINE NIGHT!
Chels

I Get To Run

Today I received a Runner's World quote that really stuck with me:
"We runners are all a little nutty, but we're good people who just want to enjoy our healthy, primitive challenge. Others may not understand running, but we do, and we cherish it. That's our only message." John J. Kelly, Olympic Marathoner
I consider myself to be a little nutty, and I know for sure my family and friends do as well. Waking up at 4am to knock out 5 miles on the tredmill is not how most of my friends start their day. Taking a hot bath while I eat a frozen protien shake in the tub is not how most of my friends end their day either. I can spend hours lurking running blogs and even longer hours reading running forums. It makes my day to see my Runner's World in my mailbox. Each day I strive for the challenge that fitness and running brings me. I want to try harder, to run longer and stronger. Some days are easy, and then their are days like yesterday when my body just feels like it has given up and the challenge is hard. Each day, I cherish my runs. I am eager to begin and always feel the "high" it gives me afterwords.
I am happy to say that when I think of running I use the words "I get to run today." A few years ago, I learned the hard way how something you love so much can be taken away from you. I really picked up running at the age of 24, just after graduating from collage. Running came so easy for me then. I was pretty thin and had good endurance. 5 mile runs turned easily into 8 miles, then 10 and before you knew it I was running 70 miles a week. I loved every bit of it. I would run countless times around a near by lake, listening to my music and just "thinking." I always asked myself what I would do if I couldnt run. That time came. Running so many miles, and taking on a new full time job while completing my master's degree left me stressed and overworked. I started to notice a huge weight loss, and then came my blood sugar issues. Before every workout session, within 15 minutes my blood sugar would drop massivly and I would need some type of quick sugar. I increased my calories by hundreds quickly to try to solve the problem. Not only did this not help, but I was feeling severly tired. Returning home after class at 5pm I could barely keep my eyes open. I made countless doctor's appointments, and in turn they ran some tests which showed that my blood sugar was severly low and that I also had Mono. Now, when you think of Mono you just think of you being very tired and sore throats. For me, this was not the case. Along with the Mono, came the blurry vision, bowel movement problems, and panic attacks. I have always been healthy, nothing like this had ever happend before to me and I did not know how to deal. Here I was, 24 always having all the energy in the world, and it all being stripped away from me. Getting through work was now my daily challange. If I were to talk a weekend day and walk through the mall, I would feel the effects the next day with swollen glands and a fever. I then became depressed, and the only way I felt I could deal with this is to keep my weight under control, which meant very skinny. As the year continued my health did not improve. The months passed. I would try to go to the gym and ride 20 minutes on the bike which would only set me back with flu like symptoms for weeks. I started to research everything I could about mono and came upon Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I denied it at first, but the more I started watching my symptoms and speaking with my doctors, this was the conclusion.
At some point I decided to get off my butt and stop feeling sorry for myself. I checked out countless books and read many articles about atheletes who had overcome CFS. I started slowly. Slowly meaning 5 minutes on the bike with no resistance every other day. After two week, and no symptoms I bumped it up to 10 minutes and continued until I was up to a half hour on the bike. The more I increased my endurance at a safe level, the more my energy started to return during the day. Of course I still needed my naps after work to get me through the night if I needed to go out later, but I was becoming stronger. Finally, a year and a half later I was able to run again. Since then, it has been a trial and error with me. It has been about 4 years since I first came down with Mono, and I can see a huge improvement. I no longer need naps on the weekends, and I am able to work out daily. Of course, I have bad days and I have good days. I also have been more keen about my nutrition and my weight. I think my body just stopped and said "Chelsea, that is it. This is too much and you are done. No more!"
I will never forget the feeling of having running taken away from me. To this day, it is a constant reminder. When I overtrain, I think it is better to rest then to go back to where I was at that time. So tomorrow morning when I wake up to do my long run, I am going to say to myself like always "I get to run!"
Chelsea

What a Week!!

This puppy thing has turned out to be more work than I have asked for. Don't get me wrong, I am loving every minute with Cooper. For one thing, I am having to wake up about 20 minutes earlier than normal to take him out twice...we have had several accidents in the morning which in result has left me scrubbing the floors. He also likes to eat his potty mats, go figure he won't go on his potty mats but he will eat them. This happens to leave a trail of paper all over my entry way. I am not used to all the shedding or the whimpering. All in all, this is quite the learning experience. Needless to say, everyday this week I have been waiting for the bell to ring so I can run home and see my Cooper.
Some weeks go so fast for me, but at the same time I can just feel mentally drained. This is one of those weeks! I think our whole school is feeling the "no recess," this week. The weather here has been brutal, below 0 degrees almost every morning. It is amazing the type of mood the weather can put you in. With taking care of Cooper at night (hence the taking him out every half hour) I have not got much done grading paper wise. These last couple of days have just kind of felt like a whirlwind all around me.
Today I felt pretty good going into my workout. Completed a 5 miler! I really pushed myself, and I am thinking I might have just a little too hard. I have that exhausted, worn out feeling. My plan called for a 4.5 miler, as you know I am not one to follow plans very well. Learned my lesson, will stick to the plan. I am glad tomorrow is a cross training, give my poor leggers a rest.
I am eargly awaiting the weekend to come. Craig made a special reservation for Valentine's Day on Saturday and my parents are going to watch Cooper for the night so we can be free.
Good news is tomorrow is Friday!

A New Edition

So here is he is officially, Cooper! Craig and I picked him up Friday night and I can't keep my hands off of him. He has been such a joy to have around the apartment. He is still in the works of being potty trained and taking walks using a leash. He does not like to be forced to go anywhere, he likes going where he wants to go so the leash is horrible for him. During the day he will go with Craig and then be dropped back off with me at home. I am already awaiting his presence tonight.

Well one thing for sure is that the weekends always just zoom by. Saturday Craig had to go into work early, so I was up as well and knocked out my 7 miler for my long run. A year ago, I never ever thought I would hit 7 miles again, and I completed it! Each week as my milage gets longer I become more and more excited. I am wondering though if I need to slow my long mile pace down a bit. I am running it at the same pace I run my weekly shorter runs.

The rest of the afternoon was spent by Craig puppy sitting while I went and got more blonde added into my hair. Saturday night we went out for dinner and stopped in a local bar for some wine and came home and crashed with Cooper.

As I was doing my morning run this morning I heard the news caster say "Happy Monday." I thought to myself, hmmm what is happy about Monday. I started brainstorming to myself what I like about each day of the week and this is what I came up with.

Monday: Always have so much energy when returning to the gym after a lazy Sunday ...feels so good to bust out a good workout bright and early Monday morning.

Tuesday: Right now on Tuesdays I get to enjoy Teen Mom on MTV-one of my horrible vices...for my half marthon schedule Tuesdays are always my short sprint runs!!

Wednesday: Hump day, we made it half-way through the week! Usually my official rest day of the week as well so no getting up at 4am to workout.

Thursday: I always feel like Thursday I can spend a little extra time staying up at night because Fridays I dont always feel like I have to be so "mentally" prepared for teaching. Hey and it is one day closer to Friday!

Fridays: Well we have Badger Sprit days on Fridays, so we wear all blue...I engage in my "Extra" diet coke in the afternoon for making it through the week, Coffee talks at Scooters with my Mom after school

Saturdays: Sleep in and enjoy my oatmeal before a long run, allow myself as much Diet coke as I want because heck its the weekend! Usually a night involving family or friends and wine of some sort :)

Sunday: My day to do absolutly nothing,go to church, close the blinds and relax, grade papers, eat, and watch all my horible reality shows ha!

Back to the Grind

So today finally, it was back to work. It felt good again to get into a routine. I did keep myself pretty busy yesterday. Wednesday is usually an off rest day for me when it comes to working out. When I am busy teaching during the week, I always make sure I get one good rest day in. Since I was out of school and out of my mind with cabin fever, I hit the gym. I did some light elliptical work for 30 minutes and an easy bike ride for 15. Well I also figured I would give a shot with some different ab work. So I flipped on the P90x ab ribber. Holy Bejeezers! I made it about 3/4 through the workout and ready to throw up. My stomach killed with insane pain. Needless to say I woke up this morning with a sore neck and sore back, plus an annoying pain whenever I cough....I can't believe my abs are that out of shape!

This mornings workout was a nice steady 4.5 mile run. I kept an easy pace at 6.0 and finished the last 1/2 mile at 6.4. I have to say, once it gets nicer outside I am going to try to push myself to get out there and run more. I think my body has to get used to more hills. Although, I hate leaving my great old tredmill that is hooked up to my fav music stations ever morning :(

So tomorrow is the big day...PUPPY IS COMING HOME. Craig and I went puppy shopping yesterday, and I finally realized how much of a responsibility this is going to be. I mean yes, I admit I can be quite blonde sometimes and here I am amazed that I have to shampoo it, clean its teeth, etc. I know, I know but I am so excited...I am needed the extra responsibility in my life right now. Sometimes I tend to focus on just me, my work, my workouts, my time. I think that is why I was single for so long before Craig came along, I always just wanted to do things on my time and never wanted to consider anyone else into that equation. Well I am learning to get better at it!
Tomorrow is Friday!! Man I can tell you the weeks fly when you put in three days as oppossed to five!
Chels

Some of my Healthy Must Haves!!
Protien Shakes and Rice Cakes

Overnight Oats with Yogurt
Emerald Cinnamon Roast Nuts

Muscle Gauge Protien Powder, espically Cake Batter and Peanut Butter!

Sugar Free Syrup

Of course PEANUT BUTTER!!

So yes another Snow Day here in Nebraska. Usually I love snow days, but the more we get near the end of the year, the more annoying they tend to become. Here are the reasons why:
1. The more snow days we have, the more days we have ended on to the end of the year

2. When 8 year olds do not have a consistent full week of school for over a month it is hard to keep them in routine

3. I have to redo my lesson plans numerous times per week

4. I would much rather have a day off when the sun is shinning and I can go out and about rather then being cooped up inside all day

So as you can see, I would much rather be in school right now but oh well, I think I can manage.

Here are some of my workout rehaps from the past few days:

Saturday (Long Run) 6.5 miles on the Tredmill-AWESOME run!! I was very impressed with myself, the last mile I was able to keep it at a 6.4 mile pace. The best thing is that my body recovered very well from this run.

Monday: 4.5 miler on the Tredmill-legs felt great! 10 minute cool down on the stationary bike along with a 20 minute upper body chest and shoulder workout.

Today: 3 miler, 2 miler on elliptical 20 minute lower body/back weight workout

Literally, with all the snow on the ground, by the time I scrape off my car, get to the gym, change out of my boots and into my running shoes, workout, then scrape my car off again, stop off at the store to grab some ice for a protien shake and make a protien shake along with eating it, it was already NOON! Half of my morning just flew by.

I am taking the snow day in and getting things accomplished on my list to do. I cleaned my bathrooms-UCK, paid rent from my already empty bank account :(, made the boyfriend some oatmeal raison cookies, and now I am blogging and trying to force myself to grade the pile of papers awaiting me.

Up above you can see I posted some of my all time healthiest faves. These are some of the things I pretty much use daily in my kitchen. I have yet to find a better priced protien powder then Muscle Gauge, and I have also yet to find a flavor I dislike from them. Also, I eat my yogurt and oats daily...I always try to change up my breakfast routine but I always come back to my yummy, creamy oats. It sticks to my stomach like glue.
Well I could go on forever, but I must move on to accomplishing some work!

Chels :)