Trusty Tuesdays

I have no idea while my post is titled that, I  am not very good at naming the blog posts. I just let things flow from my brain, sometimes filtered, sometimes not. Sometimes things just came up. Like today. Err um this morning.  I woke up, did my awesome ab workout (did I just say that?!?) and then wanted to run. But, Joe wasn't home from work yet and M was still sleeping so I didn't. I went to work and then came home. The sunset was beautiful so I hoped that the night was going to be a good one to run. I packed up M and we headed out.  I love these twilight runs with her, she chatters on about finding her moon, looking for woof-woofs, and blue bye-byes, and all the fun little things that come out of her mouth. She likes it when I go fast, and whenever I stop to catch my breath she always says "uh-oh." She cracks me up. She doesn't like it when I ask her if she wants to go for a walk with me, but as soon as I ask her if she wants to run with me, her face lights up.  I even busted out the headlight, which by the way is uncomfortable and hard to do. Maybe I need a new headlight?!? Anyone out in the blogiverse, have any suggestions? I have to admit I wish running with the jogging stroller was getting easier, although I have only been doing it for not even 3 weeks.  It does count as a good cross-training right?!?

Anyway, I wanted to put into this writing so that I can remind myself of what I want to achieve....
MY FITNESS BUCKET LIST
1- I want to run a marathon. A FULL Marathon. But, I don't want it to be just any marathon, I want it to be flat, particularly by the beach, with some of my BCR friends, no family, there cheering me on.
2- I want to run an ultra. Nothing like Decker, but something fun and new and exciting. I guess anything over 13.1 miles will be new and exciting.
3- I want to do a chocolate run in Canada. This particular race. Not necessarily May of next year, it depends on finances and vacation time at work, but it looks tempting. I would love to take my running internationally :)
4- I want to do a triathlon
5- I want to conquer 10 full reps of the stairs at Lafayette
Those are the first 5 things that popped off the top of me head. I reserve the right to add to the list. I hope one day I can look back and be like wow, what kind of kid wrote those?!? LOL!

Anyway, speaking of steps, tomorrow is my day off and I have a date with Bob and those killer steps at Lafayette.  That is after hopefully spending all day with M, well I will be spending all day with her, to visit a daycare, lunch with some friends, hopefully seeing my cousin's baby, then finishing the day off with the steps and some where in there a trip to the gym. I think I am going to need a day off to recover from my day off. But anyway I get to spend time with M is time well spent. I love all of these adventures that we go on, I am excited to see what tomorrow brings. Until then!

Hope you had a sweat-tastic Tuesday!

It's the weekend eve!

So, this whole 10 hour shift thing is kicking my butt. I am not really complaining, but I am still trying to adjust to working 10 hours. It is not like I sleep in either. I am up before 5 every day, even weekends. I feel like I have wasted some of the day if I sleep in past 7.  The last 2 nights have been restless, M woke up early Wednesday morning (2am) screaming, and wouldn't go back to sleep unless I was holding her. This morning it was 4am. By the time I was deep asleep, it was time for me to get up and get active. Today, was a run day. I try to keep my run days to Tues, Thurs, and my long runs on Sat. With a 10K on Sunday, my plan is going to hopefully ride my bike on Sat with the Breakfast Club Runners while they run. However, that is up to my uncle who is servicing it. Otherwise, it will be a short slow run. Back to today. I haven't run with music in almost a month. I did take my music today, but I changed my playlist.  I had set my mind to do the 4 miles in 44 minutes and pain-free. Last Saturday when I ran, I had a strange twinge down my leg.  It wasn't pain, it was like an electric shock for like a split second.  Anyway, I am also trying to slowly increase my mileage since I am currently training for a half marathon. Well, so I got to Fairview Park, which lately is my go to place to run.  It was an absolutely beautiful morning. It was in the 60s, with low humidity.  They were setting up for the local carnival that is going on there, otherwise there was the occasional walker on the path.  I started running, focusing on my breathing since I still feel like that is the hardest part of my struggle. I am not sure if that is due to the fact that I couldn't run for 6 weeks due to PT or if it is because I haven't taken my allergy medicine going on 2 months now. Anyway, I made sure to focus on the breathing and the surroundings. Like I said, I was ok with running 11 min/miles so when I was at 1/2 a mile I noticed that my time was at 11. I was like, this feels good, let's push it a little bit more.  At the mile marker I was at 10:30. It still felt great, so I kept pushing it. I noticed that each mile was closer and closer to 10 minutes, I even think mile 2 was under 10 minutes. I continued to focus on my breathing, and how great it felt to be running. There was no pain, no weird shocks.  When I was finished my 4 miles, I looked down at my trusted Garmin

And saw that!!! 4 miles in 40 minutes!! Even the last mile at 8:41, although I am not sure how accurate that time was,  I wasn't even giddy about that. I was stoked over the 4 miles in 40 minutes!  I feel like all of my hard work is starting to pay off.

This run is just what I needed. If you recall from this post, things have been really hard for me. I have been losing motivation because I feel like I am not seeing results. Then I had that conversation with my cousin that made me totally stoked! This morning, I reread that post and noticed that I had comments on it.  A sweet lady named Jenna commented on the post and it made my day how I have touched someone else. I sometimes forget where I came from.  That here in the next 2 weeks in my 1 year Runniversary! I cannot believe how far I have come in such a short period of time. Yes, all my runs won't be this spectacular, but maybe they will. I will continue to work hard both in the gym, running, and in life in general. Good things come to those who wait, and those who work hard. I believe I do both of them.  I have the personality where I don't give up on anything I do, and that I give 100% in all I do.

I have also realized that I might want to try a triathlon one day, and even crazier, I want to do an Ultra. I will probably do the Ultra sooner than later, but before I am 40, I will do at least one Ultra. There, I have it in writing. What a lofty goal I have.

Here is to the weekend eve! I hope you have a great Friday! Enjoy the weekend! I cannot wait to hear all about it! I also cannot wait to see what it has in store for us!