Holy Brooks Ravennas Batman! (and a Winner!)

OMG guys… the weather Friday was amazing!!! I told you I would get outside and if you follow me on Instagram, you know I stayed true to my word!! ;)  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be 65*!!  I’m super bummed though because I’m inside all day tomorrow working 14 hours! Ugh! Thursday, the day I can actually get outside again, is supposed to be 25*!!  How does that work?! for real!!  I LOVE being outside and just getting out Friday has improved my mental state and outlook on life after being stuck inside all winter long!!

Look guys… no gloves!! ;)

Look at this weather!!  It was absolutely glorious!! (Now this song is stuck in my head)

I was going to pull up some Garmin stats for you all, but somehow I misplaced my USB when we moved… hopefully I can find it!! You’ll just have to settle for pictures and taking my word for it! ;)

I RAN 2 MILES STRAIGHT… WITHOUT STOPPING!!!
Longest run post-injury with no pain to report!! I’m super pumped!!

Do you see that average pace?!! Holy Brooks Ravennas Batman!! Where did that come from?!
I’ve been running 11 something miles on the treadmill but Friday my pace per mile was:

Mile 1 – 9:54

Mile 2 – 10:37

I guess it just felt amazing to finally get outside again!!  Remember how I told you there are no hills where we moved??  Well Friday I even found a little hill to run up! ;)

Like I said… It’s tiny! ;)

After I got home, I stretched, foam rolled, and drank a green monster!  All the stretching, strengthening, yoga, and rolling I’ve been doing must be helping!!  There are some days when I feel a little ache in my knee, but nothing compared to how it used to be!! I’m so happy about the healing progress and pray that it continues to heal!! I’ve made a pact with myself that if at any point the pain comes back/gets worse I will immediately call the orthopedic doctor!! (hold me to it guys!!)

And now the moment I know you’ve been looking forward to… I know you skipped my post just to see if you were the winner!
Really guys??? Really?!!

It’s ok… I’ll forgive you! (this time)

Congrats Tessa B.!! You’ve won the Sprint Pack from Apera Bags!! Look for an email shortly!! :)

 

Are you recovering from an injury??

Do you prefer to run/workout inside or outside??

Do you stretch, foam roll, or stick after working out?

 

Longest Run Post Injury!! (video)

I’m home sick today… read BORED… so I’ve been working on improving my blog while having a Bachelor marathon…

I DVRd all of the episodes but haven’t been able to watch them until now… you may or may not be seeing a lot of blogging from me today ;) Be prepared to become best buds lol! 

This is from Tuesday night!!  I’m so excited!!! After being injured, this is the highlight of my week! My longest run post injury!
(I have no idea what happened with the quality of this video… sorry for the weird pauses)

I ended up running 1.60 miles in 19:45min (11:52 pace)… I miss my faster pace, but if I want to heal up and get back to running as much as I was before, I gotta take it SLLLOOOOWWWWW…
I’m happy to report there is ZERO knee pain going on up in here after this run!! :)

Have you ever come back from an injury?
How did you cope?
Do you watch The Bachelor? What do you think of this season?

 

Friday Favorites – That Hill is 10.9 out of 5?!

Ok, so I’m trying to get back into the blogging world after the whole moving thing… I feel like I finally have the apartment in order!! (Don’t worry, I have the Moving Story Post Coming Soon!!)  I feel like I’m kind of a stranger in Blog Land now, so I’m trying to change that by making 30 minutes every day to get around to everyone’s blogs!! :)

Now… on to my Friday Favorites!!

I RAN!!!!

I went out exploring my new town, looking for parks and hills and such… you know… the things that runner’s tend to get so excited and worked up about… “OH! That hill is at least a 10.9% incline out of a possible 5%!! I think I’ll do hill repeats today!!”  haha… no?  You’ve never said or thought something like that? lol ;)  Anyways… I started out just thinking I’d walk, but I felt so energized and excited to be outside that I ended up running part of it!!  Total: 5 miles with 2 RUNNING MILES!!!  **no knee pain yet, knock on wood!**

Yeah, btw… there are basically NO hills where we moved!! It’s the complete opposite of where we lived before!! Flat as a Pancake!!

Banana Bread

I’ve been craving this stuff and finally made a loaf!! So good!

Recipe I used is here

Yoga!

I told you all that Me and Routine are buds… I get more accomplished when I am busy!!  So… I made my life more busy!! HA! I joined 4 FOUR Yoga Challenges on Instagram! I feel like joining these things every month is really helping me grow in my yoga practice! It keeps me motivated and inspired!!  Some of my favorite poses in January so far:

  

Clockwise starting at Top Left: Flying Grasshopper, Pincha Mayurasana
(Forearm Stand), Dancer Pose, Goddess (#batmanasana) lol ;)

Now it’s your turn!! Tell me what some of your Friday Favorites are?!! :)

Calm Down! It’s Just An Inversion! (Video)

Ok… you may have noticed a little yoga on this blog… you may be like… “WAIT…I thought this was a running blog?!!”  Calm down!!! It is a running blog… except for this chica hasn’t been running because of a knee injury so I decided adding a little spice to my life with yoga couldn’t hurt anything!
If yoga just isn’t your thing, then you can X out of this blog post… or stay whatever… just know that I know and keep track of who doesn’t read my blog posts word for word! ;)
OK… totally kidding… or am i? ;)

Anyways… This week is going to be yoga week on my blog… and if yoga truly isn’t your thing you may just want to stick around because you might change your mind after this week is over… pending I have some free time to blog! ;) 

In the meantime… you can enjoy a little video of me playing around with a supported headstand inversion!  At the end I try to go from a headstand to crow pose and failed big time! lol… Enjoy!!

 

Do you do yoga?
How long have you done it?
     - 4 weeks ;)  Beginner Yogi here! ;)
If you don’t do yoga, do you think you might try it one day?

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Whoopsy Daisy, Sweat Pink Ambassador, and My Big 2-6! :)

Ok… a lot… A LOT has been going on in my life and I feel like I should share!! I think this is going to be done in list format… here we go!!!

NEW ADDITION TO THE BLOG

A couple days ago I got an exciting email!!  If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen this news… You’re looking at a new SPA sister!!  That’s right… I am now a Sweat Pink Ambassador!!  (Pink Shoelaces are on their way with pics to follow!!) ;) I’m excited to be a part of this awesome community! :)

 

WHOOPS!!  #RRRLINKUP

One of my readers messaged me and told me that that they were trying to add their Race Report and couldn’t because the #linkup was closed!! Whoops!  Sorry about that!  We are now open for business and you can linkup as many Race Recaps/Reports as you want from the month of July!! #nolimits I will also leave up your links for all of August too because I feel bad! ;)  Get to linking up!! :)

WORK WORK WORK…

I went from feeling like a bum with no jobs after graduation in May and like I could blog several times a day if I wanted to because I had nothing else to do… to feeling like I had no time again because I am now employed and have 4 separate different jobs!  I posted about it here in a blog post that you can read if you want.  Currently I am only working 2 jobs but starting mid-August I will be working all 4!! Here are my 4 jobs and my fall schedule:

1. Restaurant Job (Nights and Weekends)
   [I asked for an old job back when I was jobless… read about it HERE]
2. ASL Interpreter (On Call 24/7)
   [I signed up with one agency… hopefully more in the future!!]
3. Preschool Educational Aide (Monday through Thursdays)
   [Job I was doing in May… now full-time tho!]
4. Substitute Teacher (Fridays)
   [I can now sub for any interpreters in the area as well as teachers!!]

We’ll see how long I can keep this schedule up come fall, but I’d rather work as much as possible now while my family consists of two people instead of working and being gone all the time when we start having little additions join our family…
if you know what I mean! ;)

FROGFUEL PROTEIN SHOT GIVEAWAY (11 HRS LEFT)

You have 11 hours left to enter my FrogFuel giveaway!! Entries are really low so you have a really good chance of winning so ENTER NOW!!

DONE WITH REST… BRING ON THE WORKOUTS!

I have been really… I mean REALLY resting it up these days… the only working out I’ve done in July is being on my feet and walking back and forth really fast making food at work! lol… and bicep curls with the ice buckets when I fill the pop machines… does that count?? :-P
Really tho… I feel like I’ve given my knee a fair amount of rest time and it’s time to get legit and start working out again!  I’m not talking straight up running 10 miles tomorrow!! Calm down people… ;)  I want to be smart about this so my knee pain doesn’t come back…
which means I’ll start slow with walking for warmups and cooldowns and working on building up and balancing out the muscles that are heavily relied on while running… among other muscles too… and heavily foam rolling/sticking/ and stretching!  Also… making use of the elliptical and bike!
Hopefully after starting out slow, it won’t be long before I get back to running!! :)  I truly miss it and can’t wait to get back out there and hit the pavement pain free!!

MY 26th BIRTHDAY!

Last but not least… I turned 26 on July 14th!  Crazy how time flies!!  It was a great day filled with fun, laughter, and love! :)  My day started out with presents and then church:

After church… we went to my favorite restaurant… Red Lobster… of course my husband told them it was my birthday when we ordered dessert so they put a candle on top and a group of about 8 employees came out to sing to me… half way through the song, the whole room was singing to me and my face was bright red!! lol… people were paying their tabs and leaving and saying happy birthday when they walked by for the next 15 minutes! I felt like a celebrity!!

Then typically my mom makes me a hoho cake (recipe here) which is chocolate cake with vanilla cream filling and chocolate icing on top!!  Delicious!!  But alas, this year it was just my husband and I on my birthday and he decided to make me a ho ho cake… recipe pending! ;)

Gotta love him!! It was a fantastic birthday!!

 

 

Do you have any “Randoms” to share?

What kind of cake do you usually have on your birthday?

Are you recovering from an injury or still going strong?

Goals Update: June 2013

Alrighty… Happy July everyone!  Time for another goal update for the month of June!! But first… Don’t forget to enter your race recaps on the Race Recap Roundup #linkup!!

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GOAL #1:  Get rid of my knee pain and average 4 miles a month

                ~Not sure how many miles I actually ran in June… not a lot… but I will say even with
                  the total of last month, I would still be averaging about 12 miles a month right now…
                  I took a lot… A LOT… of rest days to try to rest up and heal my knee because my
                  main goal is to rid myself of my knee pain  - GOOD SO FAR

GOAL #2:  Graduate in May and land at least a part time interpreting job by June!

                ~I graduated May 10th!! :)  I signed up with an agency and had my first assignment
                  the last week of June!! :)  for all intents and purposed I’ve 100% accomplished
                  this goal!! I’m still looking to sign on as a contract interpreter with more agencies
                  though!! :)  - ACCOMPLISHED!! 100% COMPLETE!

 

GOAL #3:  Finish all the WIPs (Works in Progress) I have on my knitting needles/crochet hooks (5 WIPS) and make something for myself this year! :)  - 4/6 COMPLETE

~Make something for myself this year “Honey Cowl” – COMPLETE 2/11/13

 

~ WIP #1:  “What a Hoot Scarf” – COMPLETE 1/5/13

~ WIP #2:  “Owl Vest for Bryce” – COMPLETE 3/8/13

~ WIP #3:  “Snowmen Ornaments” – COMPLETE 3/31/13

*These have been sitting around for a while (2008), they were my first crochet projects ever lol… since then I’ve crocheted at least 14 other things before finishing these lol… whoops!

~ WIP #4:  “Hannah’s Flower Power Rug” – IN PROGRESS

~WIP #5:  “Valentine Doily”

 

Past Goals Updates:

March 2013
April 2013
May 2013

 

What are your goals for 2013?

What are your goals for this this month?

Happy Father’s Day & My Thoughts on Spirit of the Marathon II

I know it’s been half a week already, but I have been crazy busy with doctor appointments and job interviews this past week! (more on that later)  Guess it’s just as well I post my thoughts on SOTM2 today because I got to go see it with my daddy!  Happy Father’s Day to the best daddy in the world!! :)

First of all I just want to thank Fathom Events for the passes to go see Spirit of the Marathon II in exchange for writing about it on my blog! 

My dad ended up going with me and we got there about half an hour early… we were the only ones in the theater until about 6:55 and then a couple more people showed up and then a lot more people showed up about 5 minutes after the movie started.  Before the movie started there were marathon trivia questions popping up on the screen, so that was fun and definitely helped pass the time.

Upon the Greek victory over the Persians in 490 B.C., legend says that soldier Pheidippides ran 25 miles from the battlefield in Marathon, Greece, to Athens to deliver the news. After he arrived, Pheidippides yelled out, "Rejoice, we are victorious,” then collapsed and died (source).

This movie starts out the morning of the marathon with the 7 runners getting ready to leave for the race and then starts in to the introductions of each one of the seven runners and we get to hear each of their story’s.  Spirit of the Marathon II takes us on a journey with these 7 runners as they prepare for the Rome Marathon and interjects little snippets of the actual race periodically throughout with more of the race towards the end of the movie.

From the very beginning I was loving it!!  I laughed, I cried, I gasped and often times nodded my head in agreement or knowing exactly how each runner was feeling!  It’s a very inspiring movie not only for the veteran or beginner runner, but also for those who aspire and dream of one day running a marathon of their own or even to just start running!

**Insert whining here** I WANT TO BE BACK OUT THERE RUNNING THE ASPHALT!! ugh!  I can’t stand not running… and this movie made it that much harder to be sidelined with a knee injury right now… totally sucks!  Why me!?!?  **End of rant**… for now! ;) mwahahaha!!! ahem…

My dad loved the movie too, which I’m glad! I didn’t want him to be bored sitting through a running movie when he doesn’t run (he bikes)… But, he liked it a lot! After the movie ended there was a featurette about Team World Vision… it’s a great cause so click on the link and go look it up! 

Then, after we watched Spirit of the Marathon II… by the way, now I need to watch the first one! lol… we headed to Max & Ermas (my first time ever) for a little grub… just so happens it was “Free Cookie Wednesday” (BEST.NIGHT.EVER!)

We headed out with full bellies… we did have enough self-control to save a cookie for our spouses… since we each got three cookies! lol ;)  It was a great night spent with my dad and I truly loved the movie even though it made me feel worse about being injured! ;)

 
A fountain outside the theater

Did you go see Spirit of the Marathon II?? What’d you think?!

Happy Father’s Day out there to all you fit dads! :)