Adventrageously Fourteen

Late Edit : I posted today's entry before the news of the Connecticut tragedy broke. I'm not a shallow, heartless blogger. However, I can't say or think about it, too much, just yet, though. It just takes me some time to try to process something that absolutely senseless.

Now that we've coined "Adventrageous" as an actual word, we can start using it in its various forms.

Today's Topic: Really boring occurrences which I have captured, in photos, to make them seem more exciting.

Now you may be thinking : "Wait a minute, there, lady!" "Isn't that what all your posts are about?"

No, my friends. The difference is, this post is only about that. Others actually offer of a pretense of containing interesting content, with some boring photos on the side.

See?

really bad picture. really good cookies.

 

Thanks to this sweet blogger, I figured out what cookies I wanted to make for our Book Club's Christmas Extravaganza. When you visit her site, take note of how much better her photos are, too.

 

I've already eaten two, today. Why? They're delicious and they contain carbs.

 

Also, this happened:

I was trying to think of something lucky about all those sixes. No luck.

 

Please note this Odometer Excitment occurred in a different vehicle than the one from this post. No, you're not losing your mind. I really did share two different photos of two different odometers on the same blog.

 

Did you ever imagine you'd be fortunate enough to stumble upon reading material this compelling?

 

Today's Share: Haha! I snuck in a twoferone! The topic actually contains the blogshare. Go forth and visit Jade. Be entertained by her funny and bubbly stories. Make those cookies. Encourage her as she gets back into running after being out of comission.

 

Have you considered running a marathon after fueling solely on cookies? Me neither. (lie)

 

 



 

 



Heavenly Eleven(ly)

I'm feeling a bit "off", during this taper week. Trying not to use it as an excuse, but my posts may be a bit "off", as well. I think it's a combo of limited running and trying to not be nervous about the upcoming marathon.

Today's Topic : Healthy Food Doesn't Have to be Disgusting : I like to promote a feeling of positivity on this blog. However, I also feel it's my duty to prevent the trauma that inflicted The Husband and I, on this past Sunday.

I bought a new kind of healthy snack/protein bar for my hungry man to try. The local Health Foods store had them on sale, so I grabbed a flavor I thought he'd like. He took a long, miserable bite...and then another. When he reported how god-awful it was, I thought he was just being overly picky.

Then I tasted it.

If you're wanting to know what it tastes like to have someone or something die and rot in your mouth, please try these treats!

Someone from their promotions department should be contacting me any minute, now!

just enough to wash the taste away

 

Including bars, there are a plethora of healthy food options for runners and non-runners, alike. Please don't ever sacrifice good taste when trying to make good food choices. If you're ever in doubt, send me an email and I can suggest a healthy option for whatever you're craving, at that time. I just won't be able to actually provide the product.

 

We imaginary internet friends do have limits.

 

Today's Share: Lisa is another blogger I felt instantly connected to. While I generally end up reading only the most recent posts of the blogs I follow, I actually went back and read quite a few of her archived entries. I liked her humor, stories and way with words that much. Someday, the stars will align and we'll pace each other in a race. (she just doesn't know it, yet)

 

not quite Elf Material, yet. Better luck next year, guys...

 

 

Have you recently tried anything that surprised you with its taste?

 

Do your loved ones do their best to look as ridiculous as possible when you try to photograph them?



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink Feet 10k/5k Recap

Aka : Weekend, Part Two. In case you've just joined us, the previous weekend wasn't that exciting. I just got tired of typing it all out, yesterday.

Mysterious Miles :  Ideally, I would like to have used a local half-marathon as a tune-up race for my Full. Unfortunately, those are few and far between, this time of year, in Florida. Having no desire to tack on travel expenses to races fees, for a glorified training run, I set my sights on using a 10k, instead. (Obviously, the distance is less than 13.1 miles, but the overall concept remains.) It just so happened that an inaugural 5k/10k event was being planned for the Sunday right before my marathon.

Bonus :  Some of the Pink Feet 10k/5k/s proceeds would also be donated to the local hospital group (Florida Hospital) for Breast Cancer research. Our family participates in some sort of event, every October, specifically for this purpose. This way I could kill two birds with two pink feet!

It's easiest to say that I wasn't going into this race with PR (personal record) expectations. However, that's not necessarily the most truthful statement. In reality, all of the miles I've put in for marathon training, (minus that whole injury hiatus) should enable me to run shorter races, faster. When I raced my fastest 10k, last November, the conditions were near-perfect, all around. That aside, I felt very strong and confident this past Sunday morning, too. I was shooting for a sub 46 finish and would not have been surprised to see a 45:xx on the clock at the end.

spoiler







I'm still trying to come to terms with what went wrong.

My first mile was an easy-feeling 7:22. The second and third were slightly slower, on purpose. I was suddenly starving (a new and unpleasant feeling, for me, mid-race) and didn't want to burn out too early. The whole experience, though, was nothing like last month's icky 5k, so I was still feeling cautiously optimistic.

I turned on my music at the 5k split and felt like I was coasting on auto-pilot. After an extensive "status check", I happily realized nothing hurt. There was a male and female in front of me, but I had no desire to pass. Using them as pacers seemed a much better plan.

There were a couple of issues, towards the end of the race.
1. The enormous hill, right at the end of mile 5, sputtered out my slowest split (8:04)

2. The guy in front of me walked off course, apparently finished for the day, right before mile 6. (wth?) I stopped, thinking there was a problem. Still not sure if he never intended to actually race, was my own, little hallucination or was a secret plant to mess with my head. Either way, it was weird.

3. Lack of signage/direction coming around the final turn. I couldn't find the finish line, or the race leader. The lady with the megaphone was lovely and encouraging but would not, for the life of her, just point a finger in the right direction. I had to (again) stop to say "which way?!". Her ever-so-helpful response : "Girl! You lookin' GOOD!"

I agreed, took a gamble and turned the blind corner. I knew, long before this point, that my overall time wasn't great, but I was very happy with how well I was feeling. Little did I know, the way I was feeling on the inside, was definitely not reflecting outwardly :

Holy Geez. What am I even doing there? At least this explains why my right hip hurt, afterwards.

 

After uglying up the Finisher's Chute, I saw my guys, got some amazing news about some 5kers, took a few sips of water and headed out to finish my run. If I'd waited any longer, I would've definitely talked myself out of those last, hotter (but slower) six miles. My lovely sister-in-law kept me company for most of them, so it wasn't all bad. 

 

The Good News :

1. I felt really strong and happy and ended up winning 2nd, overall.

treat for them : they got to put the medal around my neck after I ran an additional 6 miles!

 

It was a small race. Just a little over 250 participants and most were walkers or people who chose the 5k. First overall was actually a female, too!

when I grow up, I want to look like that when I finish a race

 

2. For an inaugural race, there were very few hiccups. The parking area was over a mile from the start line. Not ideal, but we knew in advance and the directors did everything they could to make it more pleasant.

Packet pickup was IN the parking lot, so you could stash your stuff before making the trek to the start.

They also semi-lit the super-dark, in-the-woods, paved trail so we'd be able to see the bear/bobcat coming to eat us, long before it pounced.

It was supposed to be chip-timed, at the start, but didn't end up being so. Don't know why.

I'm not real sure about the post-race amenities as I was out running while others were enjoying them. I do know they had a kids' race, very cute medals and lots of pink.

 

3. Hot on the heels of my medal-winning sister, our partners-in-crime/running, destroyed their former 5k PRs on this fine, Sunday morning.

beat her best time by TWO minutes!!

 

Kristi-Anne's time was good enough for third female, overall, in the 5k and Kim's (above) medal was for placing first in her division!

 

To paraphrase my new, directionally-challenged volunteer friend  : "Girls, you lookin' GOOD!"

 

I'll have plenty of time to figure out how to make those great-feeling race miles faster. I've done it before and am confident I'll do it again. For now, I can ride high on the happiness of this past weekend with family and friends and enjoy this low-maintenance, high-stress taper-time!!

 

Giveaway coming soon!! 

 





 



 



 





Keeping Things Interesting

New runs and inappropriate, uncomfortable stretching right before your first marathon : Check!

No?

Okay. Don't worry. It was all actually very benign.

Also, in non-running related news : The Littlest broke my heart, just a little, yesterday. I have grown scarily very attached to his crazy, blondie, softy curls.

the blue mustache and beard? notsomuch

 

So, yesterday, when he told me he just wanted his hair to be "straight and sleek" I had to oblige. 

 

boo! :(

 

Luckily, he's still pretty darned cute. (and, once his curls grow back, we'll just avoid mirrors as long as possible!)

straight and sleek, indeed

 

I also read a new and timely (for me) Runner's World article about The Perfect Taper. One of the workouts described fit perfectly into my plans to run a 6 (or so) mile run, in the evening. It involves marathon-specific speed maintenance. The key is to keep the mileage and pace within an reasonable realm.

 

Before I left the house, I set up my Garmin to do a custom workout for this run. One mile warmup, followed by one mile with a pace approximately 30 seconds faster than my mgp (marathon goal pace). The next mile was to be 30 seconds slower than mgp. I repeated that set and then planned to finish off the run at an easy pace.

 

It's not often that I'm able to run in the evening. That, combined with being able to meet up with my running group and a new route made me just plain giddy. Unfortunately, my giddiness translated to erratic button-pushing on my watch, at the start. I have no idea what happened to the custom workout I painstakingly set up AND it didn't even beep at the mile splits. I was still able to see what mile I was at, but had no idea what my pace was.

 

The first mile was a bit faster than what I'd normally consider a "warmup". (see giddy factors, above) I was able to reel it in, though, and happened to catch on to the Garmin Glitch right at about 1.01. So, I sped up for my first, faster mile. It felt way too fast for a reason. I was able to check the splits, after I got home and saw it was almost 30 seconds faster than I'd planned. Oops.

 

The rest of the miles actually ended up being right on target. (go me!) However, my lovely, easy-paced cooldown was not really that, at all. I hadn't planned ahead for all this willy-nilly, in the dark running. No flashlight, no visible running buddies ahead or behind me and lots of cars with glaring headlights forced my pace to quicken. I finally stumbled on a (smart) runner with a headlamp and kept pace and conversation with him 'til we got back to the parking lot.

 

I liked the new workout and the course, but my legs were uncomfortably sore after the hilly 6.5 miles. The Husband called with a Shower Curtain Emergency (apparently those exist?) so I had to make a quick, sweaty, stinky, red-faced stop at Target before going home.

 

Walking in, I realized I desperately needed to stretch my achy muscles. I made a beeline for the bathroom and was happy to find the handicapped stall empty.

 

Gross? Probably. Necessary: Yep. Plus, I got to incorporate some new, germ-avoidance stretches into my routine!

proof

 

could've been worse. I could've chosen Wal-Mart.

 

Quick recap:

• Mommas, don't letcher babies grow up to get haircuts 
• Try incorporating a new, safe workout into your routine
• If you have to drape body parts around a public restroom stall, make sure it's at Target

Any new stuff happening for you this week?

 

Which was more weird : stretching in the stall or taking pics of it?



 



 

 



 



Trusting the Process

There are less than two weeks left until my first, full marathon,! Crazy!! As I've posted, when everything running-wise got all cattywompus due to the injury, I decided to ditch my actual training plan (s). Instead I've been planning my workouts, rest days and cross-training based on feel.

 Somehow I've been able to shut everything else out and really stay tuned into the way my body is reacting on a daily basis. If I need extra sleep, I take it. If it feels like a long, slow run NEEDS to happen, I fit it in. Until race day, I have no real way to determine if I'm doing a good or dumb things.

So far, it feels right, though. Jinxes be darned, I feel pretty, stinking good, both physically and mentally. Even if this (epic-for-me) race turns out to be a disaster, I'll be able to honestly say how much I loved training for it. (minus the whole stress fracture fiasco, obviously)

I wanted to follow up Saturday's 16-miler with some relaxing recovery miles. Luckily, Sunday morning presented the perfect opportunity. Some of my favorite ladies, who also happen to be superduper runners, met up with me.

another example of a stellar photo op with my sister

 

quite possibly the world's most enthusiastic runner

the shadows make us look cool and mysterious, eh?

 

These three, lovely girlies are currently gliding through training for their very first half-marathon. Occasionally, they let me tag along and are unlucky enough to get to hear my neverending Running "Wisdom". It usually goes a little something like this : "Don't do what I did..."

 

When the four of us finished our run/gabfest, they all took their sweaty selves home and I was starving. As I was making a big breakfast, and thinking back on the week's runs, it was like a light switch flipped off.

 

Done.

 

Any "training" that was going to happen, in preparation for this marathon, was done. I felt an overwhelming need to stop stressing, start running for maintenance and just trust the work I've been able to put in.

 

When I woke up, this morning, I felt peaceful and blissfully relaxed. Bonus: I can totally write off my current sluggish mood and call it "tapering".  For example: Not wanting to waste any extra energy to deal with this room in my house, I left for a soothing, 2-mile walk. That's not what a person does when they're lazy. It's what they do when they taper.



 all those Legos...just waiting to be stepped on

 

 

Any other ideas to avoid both running and cleaning up Pokemon cards?