I ran…and I ran…and I ran.

Apr 12, 2016

On the running front, I had a pretty great summer, fall, and winter.  🙂

August 2015

In August, I had the wonderful opportunity to run Ragnar Colorado.  I had never been to Colorado and running 200 miles from Copper to Aspen with 11 amazing people = the best thing ever.

October 2015

Jeanette and I checked the Chicago Marathon off of the bucket list in October.  We went with one goal…have fun and enjoy the race!  We did just that and it was absolutely amazing.

September 2015

I ran the Via Marathon this past September and it was one of the worst races of my life.  I was trying for a BQ (sub 3:35) and I ended up with a 4 hour plus finish.  I had a much better race back in 2014.

October 2015

A fun little 5k pushing Annabelle in the jogging stroller.  Running with the stroller and a heavy toddler is no joke.

November 2015

This was definitely the highlight of my running in 2015.  I’m not sure how we did it, but my friends Woody, Pryce, and I completed our first 50 MILER.  Yes, 50 miles!  Woody and Pryce killed it and finished in the 10 hour range and I finished in 11 hours and 52 minutes.  To be an official finisher, you had to finish in under 12 hours.  I’m glad I gave myself a few minutes to spare.  😉

February 2016

Kate and I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon and had a magical time.  This was Kate’s first half marathon and she did so great…and she loved it so much that she signed up for another one.

March 2016

I ran the HAT 50k and it was as fun and challenging as last year.  This was my friend Wendy’s first 50k and she did such an amazing job.

  

So, what’s next you ask?  

Coastal Delaware Marathon on April 24th!

Summer 2015 Recap

Apr 12, 2016

Internet world, it’s been many months since my last post. Man, I am great at this whole blogging thing. 😉 Since I want to remember what we did this Summer…and Fall…and Winter (and I hope some of you would like to see too), here’s a look at our Summer!  And since this is technically a running blog, I will also recap my running adventures soon. 🏃

Memorial Day weekend trip to Ocean City, MD

   

Dinner with my best girls from high school (we missed you KJ)

Fun in the sun!  

  

Weekend trip to Ocean City

    

Go Oriole’s!!!

  

Baby Ballerina class. She finally loved it at the end of the 7 week class. 😊

  

4th of July in Rock Hall, MD with Aunt Janice and Uncle Gren

  

Hersheypark Happy!!!

  
  

Saying goodbye to Grandses and Poppy 😔

  
  

Another trip to the beach!

  

Ragnar Relay Colorado!
    
  

Hersheypark again!

  

Outer Banks with the Seiferts, Lauren, Rob, Lincoln, and Kate!  So much fun. 

      
    

Lots of hours spent on the playground!

 

And look at that, it’s almost Summer again!

A bad run is usually followed by a good run.

Jul 11, 2015

So, I’m in the middle of marathon training and I have had some BAD runs. What makes a run bad to me?  A.  Not hitting goal times  B.  Feeling horrible throughout the run  C.  Feeling down or in a running funk. Well, I’ve had a few too many of these runs lately. 

Last week’s track workout included 2 x 1200m and 4 x 800m. I was getting over a cold and just could not get anywhere near the goal times. I even shortened 2 of the 800s to 400s. Bad run!

This past Tuesday, I set out for a tempo run and couldn’t manage one mile at tempo pace. It was hot and humid and I was tired. Bad run!

But alas, this 20 miler came along and many of the miles were at goal pace (under 9:00 minute miles) and I had some gas left in the tank at the end!  Good run!!!!

  

Maybe my new shirt from Janae at http://www.hungryrunnergirl.com helped me get through this one. She is so speedy and an awesome person. ☺️

 

Happy Saturday and I hope you have a good run this weekend!

Last really good run?  This 20 miler!

Favorite treat after a long run?  A big iced coffee and an egg sandwich (or a donut) 😉

All or nothing.

Jun 29, 2015

I’m an all or nothing type of person. I’m specifically like this when it comes to food and exercise. For example, if I’m on a good exercise regimine and start eating super healthy, I tend to not eat enough for my activity and go a little over board with being “healthy”.  On the other hand, on days where I don’t exercise and eat poorly, I tend to just keep eating because “the day is shot anyway…”  

Today was a prime example…

Breakfast:  Think Thin Lean Protein Bar and coffee

Lunch:  chicken, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, and green peppers. 

  
Snack:  dark chocolate covered goji and acai berries (small package)

Dinner:  black bean burger with sour cream and salsa and sweet potato fries

PAUSE. I should have stopped there and went to bed. BUT, since I only took a short yoga class today (hip/glute is on the mend), why not just dive head first into dessert and never stop. 

Dessert:  chocolate cake with ice cream, lots of skinny popcorn, and more ice cream. Not pictured…thank goodness. 

Now I’m sitting here feeling very full and very gross.  The only thing I can do is move on and start over tomorrow.  Here’s to a healthier tomorrow!                                                                 ——————————————————-

Now that I’ve shared way too much (and ate too much), here are pictures of the best part of my day. 

Annabelle’s first baby ballerina class!  She was not a happy dancer and didn’t want to leave mommy’s side. She finally opened up at the end of class, so maybe next week will be better!

   
   

After dance class, Annabelle “helped” me foam roll. ☺️

  
I hope you made better food choices than I did tonight!  

What did you have for dinner?  Dessert?

Sunday Funday!

Jun 28, 2015

It’s been a super long time since I’ve posted. To my loyal readers (Rob, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Janice), I am sorry. 😉  In case you are new here, my name is Linda and I love my family, running, and ice cream. I’m currently training for a September marathon and hope to qualify for Boston. Please stick around!                                   ———————————————–

This weekend was a good one filled with lots my favorite things…

Running!  16 miles on Saturday morning. Jeanette and I averaged a 9 minute pace and it was awesome. 

Napping!  Saturday afternoon nap with my favorite little girl. 

   
 

Ice cream!  This was my first time trying this brand. I planned on just having a few bites. A few bites = the whole pint. 

  
Snacks!  I’ve been on a serious popcorn kick lately.  Ya know, I need the salty to balance out the sweet. 

  
Family fun day!  I bought Chris super good tickets to the Oriole’s game for Father’s Day. We had such a good time. 

   
     

(As seen on my Instagram lindarunning4two)

Now that I’ve watched Big Brother (anybody else love this show), ate my weight in ice cream, and stayed up way too late, I NEED to go to bed. I woke up with a weird hip/butt/IT band issue going on and really really really hope it starts feeling better tomorrow. Please cross your fingers and toes for me. 

Good night!

Fun Things Friday!

Apr 10, 2015

The weekend is finally here!!!  Let’s jump right into some fun things for this Friday!

1.  Annabelle was traumatized by the Easter Bunny. She finally settled down for a picture when I sat in between her and the bunny. 

  

2.  She did enjoy her Easter basket though. The big hit…Elmo bubbles!

   

   

3.  Annabelle loves to play with and stand in her potty. Luckily, she doesn’t understand how to use it quite yet. ☺️

  

4.  I bought the 21 Day Fix DVDs. I’ve only done one workout so far because we lost the remote to our DVD player and I can’t move to the other workouts.  #losing.  I also tackled two Insanity workouts this week (cardio and strength/max cardio plyo) and man are they TOUGH!!!

  

5.  Post workout lunch…turkey, string cheese, and cucumbers and carrots.  Don’t worry…me and Annaballe shared some strawberry yogurt covered pretzels too. 

  

Have a great weekend and eat some ice cream!  PS I had a pint of Ben and Jerry’s at 11:30 pm last night. The struggle is real. 

All Aboard the (mostly) Healthy Train.

Apr 8, 2015

I was SUPER sore after the HAT 50k and I pretty much sat on my behind and ate for an entire week straight.  I know that my body needed a rest and it was nice to not have the “pressure” of fitting in a daily workout.  I also decided to just let go and eat whatever I wanted for a week.  This mostly meant that I snacked on candy and other treats and ate a few meals that I normally wouldn’t (like a chicken sandwich and fries from Chic Fil A).  So, after a week of pretty much doing no activity and eating a bunch of crap food, I was more than ready to get back on the healthy train.

Here are some of the meals I ate to get back on track!

• I actually meal prepped on a Sunday and made enough chicken and veggies for lunches for the week.  It was really nice to just reach in the fridge and grab a container and be on my way.

 

• I also made a batch of “egg muffins”.  Egg muffins are pretty simple…

  

1.  Sautee spinach and a clove of garlic in coconut oil.

2.  Add a spoonful of spinach into the bottom of each muffin.

3.  Spinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the spinach.

4.  Mix together 4 eggs and 2 egg whites, season with salt and pepper, and pour on top of the spinach and cheese.

5.  Bake until set.  🙂

• Love Grown Oats Power O’s .  This cereal is made with beans!  While they don’t taste like Honey Nut Cheerios, they still taste pretty good!

 

•  Sweet potato (cover in coconut oil, wrap in tin foil, and bake until soft…thanks for the tip Janae) topped with turkey, mixed veggies, and cheese.

 

• Chobani Greek Yogurt with Oats

 

• Ground turkey (cooked with some onion, garlic, and taco seasoning) tacos topped with black beans, cheese, and tomatoes.

 

• Mahi Mahi with green beans…and a french baguette from Panera Bread (it would just be wrong to let it go to waste!)

 

• Turkey, string cheese, and raw veggies (carrots, cucumber, and tomato)

I actually went a full 4.75 days without dessert or any other after dinner treats.  I treated myself with fro yo on Friday night and then my healthy train fell off a cliff on Saturday evening through Sunday.  What did this train wreck look like?  It looked like french toast and bacon, robin’s eggs, fish tacos, sangria, Cadbury Mini Eggs, cookies, ice cream, and popcorn.  Wow, that was just gross.  It looks like I have two speeds….uber healthy or just sit me in a pool of chocolate, cookies, and candy.  Something to work on in the future…

Anyway, I hope that you find some of my healthy meal choices helpful!

The HAT 50k!

Apr 7, 2015

Also known as the time I ran/walked/climbed/slid for 8 hours straight.  🙂

The 28th Annual HAT Run took place on Saturday, March 21st at 9 am.  I was excited and VERY NERVOUS to be running my second 50k (you can read about my first 50k experience here).  Since the race didn’t start until 9 am, I got to sleep pretty late for a race morning.  Please note that the Ragnar Relay alarm remains ready to be used when needed.

Since I had all of my stuff laid out, it didn’t take me long to get ready and head out to my car.  I had totally forgotten about the fresh snow that had fallen the day before and I spent about 10 minutes scraping the ice and snow off of my car.  After a quick stop at the gas station (where my gas tank was frozen shut), I was on my way.  Seeing this sunrise was a great start to the day.

At 8 am I arrived at the race and found my training partner and BFF Jeanette.  We quickly picked up our packets, hit the porta potties, and suited up.  It was right around freezing at the start of the race and it was expected to reach 50 degrees by the afternoon.

The race started promptly at 9 am and I could not feel my ankles, feet, or toes.

From the race website…The course is mostly single track trail with a mix of open fields, dirt road and some paved road. The course features nearly 7,200 feet of climbing. There is a starting loop of 4 miles followed by two identical loops of 13.5 miles. There are 4 stream crossings that can be challenging depending on the water level – there is always the chance of getting wet feet.

At the end of the first 4 miles, we ran back through the pavilion that held our drop bags.  Many people took the opportunity to shed some clothing since the day was getting warmer and the temperature would continue to climb.  Since I am always cold, I kept everything on and headed out for the first 13.5 mile loop.  Sadly, I lost Jeanette soon after this point and I didn’t see her again until the end.  She is a really great trail runner.

After about an hour and a half, I had a Honey Stinger gel.  I didn’t feel like I wanted it yet, but I knew that my body needed the fuel and I felt it kick in soon after.  I was feeling good and finally starting to feel my feet…and then I came upon the first stream crossing.

Caption this photo however you would like, but I can tell you I was not a happy camper.  Since I saw there was no other option, I headed across the stream and just hoped I wouldn’t fall and get my entire body wet.  This actually happened to a number of people!  Luckily, this stream was only high enough to cover my ankles.  The second stream was up to my knees!

Since I was running pretty much alone, I made some friends along the way and would run with people from time to time.  It never lasted long as one of us would pull ahead and leave the other behind.  I mentally split the course by the aid stations, but I honestly can’t tell you how many miles were in between each station.  There were two main stations and one smaller one that seemed like it was in the middle of the woods.  At each main station I ate one quarter of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a few pretzels, and a cup of Gatorade.  Towards the end I substituted the pretzels for salty french fries (man these were good) and I added in a cookie here and there.  Why not right?  I stuck with water while I was out on the trail.

I finished the first 17.5 miles in about 4 hours and headed back out for the last 13.5.  Since it was about 1 pm when I started my second loop, the temperature was climbing and the trails were in BAD shape.  I have never seen so much mud in my life. Many parts were so slippery that you really couldn’t run if you tried.  I tried to keep up the pace and keep moving forward, but I had some very slow miles thrown in there.  There were a few miles on the road and I was so happy to hit dry land. I made up some time and rocked 9 minutes miles on the pavement.

After running/walking/sliding and probably staggering to the finish line, I crossed in about 8 hours and 4 minutes.  Man was I happy to receive my hat and umbrella.  Everyone got a tshirt for signing up, but you only got the hat and umbrella after finishing.  🙂

Jeanette finished in just under 7 hours and look how good she looks at the finish line!

  Here is my finish line picture…not too bad right?

Jeanette was all clean and dry in comfy clothes when I finished and I was so grateful to see her standing at the finish line.  I was so happy that we both finished, but that was not the best thing about that day.  Jeanette’s family dog had been missing since that Thursday and he was found while we were out running.  I was so so happy to hear the good news.  🙂

My thoughts about the race:

1. I LOVED it and I can’t wait to sign up for next year.
2. I really do love trail running.
3. French fries are awesome.
4. I have never been so sore in my life.
5. Why stop at 50k? I think it’s time for a 50 miler.

🙂

If it was easy, everyone would do it.

Mar 12, 2015

Running is tough.  Running is tough for everybody.  My tough might be pushing a 7 minute mile and your tough might be pushing a 5 minute mile or a 9 minute mile. No matter what your pace or your running ability, running is HARD and it takes a lot of work to improve and reach goals. 

Yesterday I ran during lunch with my friend Lisa and it was great. She did 10 miles (good job Lisa!) and I ended with 7.5 miles. These miles felt sooo good….they were slow (for me) and I just ran, kept it relaxed, and enjoyed every second. 

Today was a whole different story. Jeanette and I wanted to make good use of a mild , sunny day, so we headed to the track for some speed work.  Speed work = brutal. Our workout looked like this…

Warmup run from work to the track

2 x 1200m (3/4 mile)

3 x 800m (1/2 mile)

2 x 400m (1/4 mile)

Cool down run from the track back to work

Total mileage = 5.1

Jeanette smoked me today and I finished each set about 15 seconds behind her (except for the 400s). 😉 I was gasping for air at the end of each set and could not get my breathing down. My legs felt ok, but my breathing felt off. I left our exact finish times at work, but I do know that we did similar workouts this time last year and they don’t compare to today’s times.  As in, we were definitely faster last year. 

So, the moral of the story is that running is tough, running performance comes and goes, but every day that you get to run is a good day…no matter what.  We all have good days and bad days and you just have to hope that the good days outweigh the bad. 

Please send me and Jeanette some good running mojo on March 21st. We will be tackling some challenging trails for the HAT 50k (31 miles). Yes, runners are cray. 

Completely off topic but this post needs a picture. 😊

PSA from Annabelle…keep up with your oral hygiene. 



Did you have a good running day or a bad running day?

Love or hate speed work?

Do you brush twice a day?

Stories from my iPhone…and ice cream.

Mar 10, 2015

Hi guys!  I’ve been totally lame sauce and I’m sorry about that. I’m trying really hard to get out of this funk and I think some sunny Spring weather is just what the doctor orders. PLEASE bring on the warm weather. Pretty please.

Since I need the pictures from my phone to actually remember what’s been going on, I’ve uploaded a bunch for a trip down memory lane.

Sweaty selfie after an at home workout I did in the living room while Annabelle ate lunch.  She thinks burpees are hilarious and we practice counting as I do them. 😊

Poor baby was having some tummy troubles last weekend. Toddlers and tummy trouble = absolutely terrible.

Eating chocolate Teddy Grahams at 9 am. Thanks Daddy.

Snow day breakfast of pancakes, turkey sausage, and strawberries.

Lots of snow…about 11 inches.

Chris and I had a rare dinner out last Friday (thanks Carrie!!!) and we enjoyed salmon, tuna, bread pudding, and flourless chocolate cake. 😍

Annabelle rocking her Maryland onsie from Uncle Gren and Aunt Janice. Go Terps!

Avocado omlette = perfect post long run meal

A perfect Sunday morning run with two of my awesome Ragnar teammates. Thanks for coming up Woody and Pryce!

I love seeing double digits on my Garmin.

Banana, oats, and chocolate chip cookies. 😀

Homemade ice cream cake just sounded like a good idea today.

THE LAYERS!!!

1. Chocolate fudge (chocolate chips melted into some vanilla almond milk)

2.  Crushed oreos

3. Red velvet cake ice cream

4. Chocolate fudge

5. Vanilla fudge ice cream

6. Cool whip

7. Sprinkles

Even though I wanted to eat it as soon as I made it, I waited until after dinner.  🙂

Post workout selfie…because you really needed to see my sweaty face.  PS Somebody please tell me how to fix my crow’s feet.  I did Jillian MIchael’s 30 day Shred Level 2 followed by 2 rounds of the At Home Jumping Jacks Circuit Workout.  On the second round I made a few substitutions to switch things up a little bit (burpess instead of tuck jumps, tricep dips in place of tricep pushups, and leg lifts in place of bicycle crunches). Dinner = leftover chicken mixed with veggies topped with shredded cheddar cheese.  Everything it better with a side of sweet potato fries.

Yup, I ate this huge chunk that is missing.

What is the best dessert you have ever had?

Best workout last week?

If you are in a funk too, I’m sorry.