Life lately [brain + photo dump]

Hello loves!

I keep telling myself I'll keep up with blogging better once my comprehensive exam is done, once classes are done, once I graduate... but the fact is, life is BUSY. I finished my comprehensive exam over FOUR weeks ago, and classes ended Monday...

So, I hope you'll just be happy to see me when I'm here and not miss me too much when I'm gone. Like your favorite flaky friend who is oh-so-hard to make plans with but whom you love dearly. :)

Here's a glimpse at my life lately. (that is, the part of my life that wasn't work + papers + presentations + job applications...)

I attempted for a while to walk or run a mile a day in May. That fell apart pretty quickly (#postmarathonslump), but I did manage to convince Pat to take a walk with me on campus one evening!

He took this sneaky picture of me while I was taking the first picture. (#bloggerproblems)

I celebrated my last Capstone class on a patio with my lovely friend Ashley.

 I ran a 5k that was 19 seconds away from my best time ever. (I'll take it!)

My wonderful friend Sam visited, and we went disc golfing! (aka the boys golfed and I walked around and talked at them :)

 This is what a disc-golf walk ends up looking like:

And finally, I had my last college class this Monday. These lovely ladies and I started together and now we're finishing together. (also, you can see in this picture that I chopped my hair off :)

Upcoming in my life: Me and Pat are both graduating this weekend!! Which means -- The Meeting Of The Families. My little sister, Anna, has met Pat's dad and aunt, but they're the only ones who have met. So my parents will be meeting his dad and aunt and everyone will be meeting Pat's sister. It should be exciting!

We also each have three ceremonies!! Luckily, two of them overlap for both of us. Pat and I will each miss one of the others' ceremonies (does that make sense? his business ceremony is at the same time as my hooding ceremony. booo).

And we're also having a graduation party Saturday! SO MANY THINGS.

And then next week, we're taking offffff on a trip to Oregon and Washington. I'm SO excited. We're going to hike Mt. St. Helens, meet Shauna and Tim and see my friend Jacque and do lots of cool things.

I am not sure when I'll be posting again. :( If you want to keep up with me, I'll be on Twitter and Instagram -- find me there!!!

Lots of love,

Training Tuesday [1.14.14]

Hey friends!

Popping in really quickly tonight to check in with my training. Here's what this week looked like:

Wednesday, Jan. 8: This run totally almost didn't happen. Or, more accurately, I almost quit after three miles -- actually stopped running and texted Pat that I quit, then ran two more miles. I'm just so so bored of running inside.

Friday, Jan. 10: Intervals -- 2.31 miles. Always goes by fast!

Sunday, Jan. 13: My mantra on this run was, "Pace doesn't matter. Just keep moving." I have such a hard time with feeling like my long runs need to be a certain pace when really, everything I've read says to take your long runs sloooow. So I did, and I powered through the whole dang thing -- even up the giant hills. Proud of that one. Also, proves that the troubles I've been having have been totally mental -- my body easily handled the 8 miles. Probably helped that it was gorgeous and I got to run outside!

I've slacked so far this week -- I was supposed to run yesterday and today. I have excuses, but you know what they say about excuses (probably a million things. pick your favorite).

Hoping to get back on track tomorrow! Not too concerned at this point -- just used my rest days in the beginning of the week instead of the end. :)

How are you all doing with your healthy living/fitness goals?

Training Tuesday [1.7.14]

(I think that might only be the second time or so that I've used 2014! Woah.)

Training this past week was less than ideal. I missed a couple days last week visiting friends/being lazy/reuniting with Pat. And then, the weather decided to be frigid, icy and scary for driving. So, I've only got two runs in the books this week.

I'm not too worried about it. I missed a 4-mile run, and five days off during training isn't ideal but it's also not the worst thing ever. I'll survive!

The two runs I got in were pretty solid. Not super long -- the first was actually 2.51 miles, even though it's showing as three. That was a nice interval run, which always goes by fast! Then tonight I really wasn't feeling it -- my stomach has been funky all day -- but I feel SO much better having gotten that run in!

Has anyone out there set some new fitness or healthy living goals for 2014? I'd love to hear about it!

Training Tuesday [12.31.13]

Hey friends! Stopping in again today for a quick Training Tuesday, as promised.

Kind of funny in graph form! I'll probably play with the format for next time. :) I've been very lucky this week that the weather has been WONDERFUL and I've been able to run outside. In December. In southwest Missouri. Hallelujah.

Wednesday, 25th -- Rest day. Christmas!
Thursday, 26th -- These 3 miles are a trick. It was actually 2.61 miles in intervals. Which I always love.
Friday, 27th -- Three miles. I was fast! Felt great.
Saturday, 28th -- Six miles. I was not feeling prepared, but mistakenly thought it was only 5 weeks out to my next half -- really it was 6 weeks. But still, it was the motivation I needed to get out there and I did great!
Sunday, 29th -- Rest day
Monday, 30th -- Took a second rest day. Had a weird headache-y gross feeling
Tuesday, 31st -- Three miles. Got really hard near the end -- I had to stop when my hair fell out of its braid and then it was hard to restart, but it was really nice outside, so totally worth it in the end!

Overall, it's been a good week of training! Getting my confidence back after that accidental two weeks I took off. Amazing how quickly I get nervous again.

Also, it's about this time last year that I was training to run a 10k and ran 6 miles for the first time. Apparently, I'm just a winter runner.

Hope you all are having a fantastic New Year's Eve! As I write this (around 3 pm...) we're still trying to figure out plans. I'm sure I'll keep you posted!

The Dr. Bob Run, take two

Hey friends!

So it's already been a month since I ran this race, but I really wanted to post about it, so here I am.

First of all, a recap: I ran the Dr. Bob Run in 2012 as my second race/second 5k ever and it kicked my ass. I ran it with the bf, Pat, and was so so disappointed in myself -- because he'd done no training at all and could have been faster than me and because it was so difficult for me -- I was breathing really hard and had to stop and walk a few times, which I hadn't done in my first 5k.

To be fair, the course is super tough. The Dr. Bob Run is held at Rim Rock Farm, which is where KU's cross country team trains and competes. Loose dirt and grass trails, big hills -- but GORGEOUS scenery.

Anyway. This year.

This year the race was just a week after my second half marathon. The weather was PERFECT and I felt pretty good going into it -- wasn't really sore anymore and was excited to run a shorter race. Pat ran again with me this year, but now I've run enough races with others that I wasn't really nervous about running with him.

I brought my phone on the course but didn't listen to music -- I just used it to keep track of the distance. Me and Pat kept a great pace for the first few miles and then split up with just about a mile left.

I finished up solo and was SO HAPPY with my race overall. I had a 10:23 pace throughout, which is good for me anyway, but crazy good when you add in all the hills.

I finished in 32:15, a full FOUR MINUTES better than my time on the course last year. Huzzah! Pat beat his time from last year by a few minutes as well, but I didn't write down his times, just mine. :)

Finishing the race that much faster than the year before and having a great race after such a difficult one the week before was seriously the best feeling! I am no longer enemies with the Dr. Bob Run. :)

What's one of your shining moments of work-out or running victory? I'd love to hear!

A (modified) Couch to 5k plan -- How I started to run

Hey friends!

Today I thought I'd quickly share the training plan I used when I first started running.

One thing I really loved about this plan was that it's based on times, not distances. Many running training plans are distance based. As in, run 1.5 miles Monday, 2 miles Wednesday, etc. I thought that was so intimidating! When I started, running two minutes straight was a challenge. There was no way I was going out and running half a mile on my first try.

Also, at the time, I didn't have a smart phone with apps to easily measure distance, but I did have a phone with a stop watch. So a time-based training plan was perfect for me.

Week One
Run two minutes, then walk one. Do four cycles.

Week Two
Run four minutes, walk two. Do four cycles.

Week Three
Run eight minutes, walk two. Do four cycles.

Week Four
Run ten minutes, walk one. Do three cycles.

Week Five
Run fourteen minutes, walk two. Run sixteen minutes, walk two. Run fourteen minutes.
*This was the scariest week for me, but I did it! If you can only do 14 on the middle run, that's ok too.

Week Six
Run seventeen minutes, walk two, run seventeen.
*This week they also asked that we start practicing a finish-line push: for the last 30 seconds of each run, see if you can up your pace!

Week Seven
Run seventeen minutes, walk one only if you have to, run seventeen minutes

Week Eight
Run 34 minutes or a 5k!!



I also made this picture version that should be pinnable/printable/shareable!

A couple more things about this plan:

Every week was scary. Each week I was terrified of the new number I had to run -- whether it was four minutes or 17. But I was able to complete each week's challenge. It wasn't always easy, but I did it. I bet you can too.

If you can't, though -- if you find that you're super struggling with a week, figure out what you can do. Can't do ten minutes yet? Repeat the week before. Or, try nine minutes.

Finally, we were advised to do a five-minute warm-up "brisk walk" and to run three or four times a week on this plan. I think I mostly did three times a week. See what you can do, check out your energy levels, and go for it!


If you're trying this plan, please let me know! I'd love to hear about if/how it works for you!

Have any of you made running- or fitness-based goals for 2013? I'd love to hear about them!

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