2017 OMaD - Week 49

First full week of December! Whoo hoo! To be honest... I wrote this post each day during the week, but on the very last day when I added the entry for my race... I lost all of it! So, what we have now is a rewrite of my week. It may be a little sparse here an there, but you'll get the idea of what happened!

December 3 - 9

Day 337:  5.01 Miles - For this day I had planned between 4 - 5 miles pending on how I felt. I felt good, especially with the fact that I was able to zone during the run. I did work a little harder towards the end and I tired! Interestingly enough, my average pace was a slower than last week's 5-miler, but the finish time is the same.

Day 338: 0 Miles - Rest day! The hubs and I had the day off together, and it was awesome!

Day 339: 3.11 Miles - Another 5k run in the books. The cold front blew in today, and it was chilly! What I liked about this run was even though I felt slow, I had negative splits! Mile 1 - 14:04, Mile 2 - 13:53, and Mile 3 - 13:12. 

Day 340: 0 Miles - Rest Day! M and I had the day off again, which was great! We went up to the Frisco area. First I had to pick up packets for my little running team for the Frosty 5k. The experience of pick up seriously needed some better organization, but oh well. After that we had an adventure in Ikea! I love me some Ikea!

Day 341: 3.11 Miles - Now, I thought that the cold front on Tuesday was cold. I was wrong. The real one hit overnight and I was faced with a training run in 20 mph wind gusts and 29 degree wind chill. Now, that's cold! Brrr! I did a 5k and it felt that it took forever.

Day 342:  0 Miles - Another rest day! I took the time to dream about another full marathon. So far the BCS Marathon is in the lead for my 2018 goal. I had such a good experience with that marathon.

Day 343: 4.13 Miles - Race day! I woke up at 5am, and I just wanted to sleep, but I got up anyway. While I had my coffee I made a new playlists of punk music to run to. After getting stuck in traffic for a little bit, I made it to the race. Running buddy HC and I ran the fun run mile to warm up, which was a great steady 11:13 finish time of running straight. For the 5k, I was hoping to beat HC, but she booked it fast and left me in her dusts. That being said, my attempt to keep up with her ended with an awesome finish time of 00:30:40, which is 14 seconds slower than my PR set in 2015 when I was at my lightest weight. Overall, I've pretty happy!

Total Miles this week:  15.36 Mile

Miles to Date: 367.78 Miles

OMaD - Week 29 Recap

This week in the One Mile A Day challenge update with a continuation of trying to make this an awesome month.


July 12 - July 18

Day 187:  3.2 Miles - Ran with my little running/walking group at the Too Hot to Handle race at White Rock Lake. It was hot, but was doing great. After mile 2 my chest was hurting because my breathing was off.... so I had to walk twice to let me heart and lungs to stop from exploding... and it killed my chance to have a PR by 12 seconds! Twelve. Douze. Zwölf. Doce. 12, people! Gah! That's torture... so painful!!! I finished strong though, but had to sit and lay down for a bit right after the finish line. Had some yummy Watermelon Dreamsicle from TCBY. Then the group went off to Torchy's Tacos for breakfast. So far not a bad time... even when the ex was there and we stood near each other and sorta talked too. Feelings doing better on that front, I think. Granted, I saw my band friend last week and that has put me in a really good mood again... now I just have to deal with the fact that I may not see him again for an extremely long time (and the fact that there may not be anything going on between us to begin with)! Gah! 

Check out this yummy Watermelon Dreamsicle! 

Day 188: 1 Mile - Had a good day off. Had lunch and ice cream with a friend. Then I shopped, shopped, shopped. I finally bought two foam rollers with the Dick's Sporting Goods Christmas gift card my ex gave me (thanks!) and I bought some clothes at Target. Oh, and I got to chat for a bit with my brother during my walk. So, yeah... pretty good day.

Day 189: 2.75 Mile - Did the miles on the elliptical tonight. Could I have gone just another .35 to a 5k... buuut, I did some core work too. Soooo, here's to a late night workout!

Day 190: 2.54 Miles - So! First time on a spin cycle. And I had no idea what I was doing! I basically pedaled, pedaled, and pedaled. Finally at some point the little computer thingy (technical term) started to show any type of mileage... so! I have no idea. I think I got about 25 minutes in - playing with the resistance and so on. I'll definitely try it again. Afterwards I walked a mile around the place.

Day 191: 1 Mile - What a day. I saw a real life sloth for the very first time today! Amazing! I nearly died from happiness! Then someone threw rocks at my car and dented it and broke the windshield. Ugh! Then! I went to get some late night therapeutic froyo and the shop was putting their toppings away 20 minutes before they close. When I asked if I just get some yogurt I was told they were closed. Really? Really?!? Gah!

Day 192: 1 Mile - My family and I headed over the Dallas Museum of Art for their monthly Late Night and their very popular Museum Murder Mystery Game. We got there just after 7pm an joined the line to get some Greek food. Mmmm, chicken gyro! Then we got into a even longer line for the Museum Murder Mystery: An Artful Game of Clue. If you haven't been to the mystery event... you must! Granted it is crazy, crazy, crazy crowded, but it's so  much fun! You interview the suspects (Subjects from the artwork that came to life! There were actors in costumes that remained in character the entire time!) as you decide who is the murder and what artifact in the museum did they use. Oh, and you have to find the chalk outline of the victim's body! You get a score card, just like in the Clue and you're set loose in the museum. My mom and I really got into it and we totally had a great idea for a suspect.... but as it turned out we were wrong... loads of time. Hee Hee.  I must admit though I did use my phone a couple of times to look for the artifacts because there was no way to see what one because of the crowd. Once we had an idea we would have a staff member check our card. Mom and I were surprised of the suspect, but knew that she was a snobby French lady. Thankfully the DMA blogged about the murderer's motive! I wonder who writes these mysteries, and I wonder if they need another writer cause I would so do it!

Day 193: 1 Mile - Just a mile walk today. I hope to get up uber early and try out getting 8-9 miles at an area park by way of the new extension. We shall see!

Total Miles this week: 12.49 Miles -

Total Miles Thus Far: 366.12 Miles

How was your week? 

2015 Hot Chocolate Run Recap

This is a short little recap about the 2015 Hot Chocolate Run, sweets.

I had a good time, which was something I really needed after the week I had (long, painful story). Plus, I was still coming off of the cold I developed earlier that week, and I was worried about how I was going to do. As usual I always wanted to better my time from the year before. Granted the year before the race was two days after I had suffered a 24hr stomach flu and had to walk the entire course before I could only eat half the chocolate yumminess. So far the last two Februaries in a row have been crappy. Really crappy. This has to change! Gotta!

Anyway! My mom and I drove down to Fair Park under the cover of darkness and walked from one end of the park to the other to stand around in the Automotive Building. It was cold, but not too cold. Once I met up with my best-friend-for-life Jennie and one of her friends I gear checked our stuff right before heading out to the corrals.Well, actually to the port-a-potties.. then the corrals. I have to say the The Hot Chocolate Run ALWAYS has enough potties, which I LOVE!


Whenever I sign up for this race I always enter my true estimated 5k pace, but I always end up in one of the last few corrals to start the race with Mom and Jennie. I know that I'll never win my age group, so it doesn't matter when I start. One of the main reasons why I do this race is it's always with my favorite people, and because it was a nostalgic - The Hot Chocolate Run was the first-ever 5k race I ever did.

I ran the entire course, but my Garmin stats show I stopped once for a second near the beginning (I don't remember that). I averaged a 10:56 pace and I looked pretty steady throughout the course, which was nice. I didn't break any PRs, but that was ok. I didn't want to accidentally over do it the weekend before the Austin Half Marathon.

After the finish I had to change my clothes - desperately! I got my gear, but I wasn't about to stand in line for the indoor bathroom, which I know would be questionable at this point in time. Instead I stepped behind the curtain that the race organizers put up alone the long halls of the building. There was a perfect, dark space in between the curtains and the wall for me to the changed. Granted if someone stepped in further down from where I was they would have seen a show, but oh well. I just changed my shirt and pulled on another pair of pant - so it wasn't anything too scandalous (not that I cared). When I stepped out a woman was surprised that I decided to change there instead of in the bathroom. I told her that after doing X amount of half marathons and such I know when to pick my battles.

The entrance to my awesome impromptu changing room!

With my new dry layers of clothes we got our chocolate goodness. It was WONDERFUL!

On the drive home, I was thankful for seat warmers!

I can't wait to do it again next year. I'm seriously considering the 15k because of the medal, but a friend/running buddy wasn't a fan of the course. Hmmmm. Decisions! I would've done it this year, but I didn't want to burn out or do something stupid before the Austin Half Marathon. We'll see what I do next year, but at least I know I'll be there! I also can't wait to see what awesome goody bag they'll have too. I LOVE the race jacket I got this year.

Images found here and here.

Make Tracks for the Zoo 5K Recap

In May 2014 I visited my amazing and genius brother in St. Louis. It just so happened that the zoo was having their annual Make Tracks for the Zoo 5K walk/run that same weekend. The race, which benefits this amazing zoo, takes you around the famed Forest Park and ends with yummies inside the zoo before it opens! Awesome! I had to do it. I even talked my brother into running it with me (he was going to walk me over there any!). It was all uber exciting since it was my first race outside of Texas to boot!

It was a cool but sunny morning. Just a few degrees below perfect race weather. Living really close to the park we just walked over, which was a good warm up. Race day packet pickup proved to be pretty painless (I'm always wary of them), and I got one of most favorite race shirts. It's green and has a cheetah cat on it! Only downside that I remember... no gear check (oh, and bananas... keep reading to find out). So! My brother rode his bike out to stash our stuff in his locker at Washington University, which was closer to us than home. 

This picture does not give the American flag size justice! 

The race starts just down street from the Saint Louis Zoo entrance, and takes you past some of the big features of beautiful Forest Park, such as the World's Fair Pavilion, The MUNY, the Jewel Box. It also takes you up some pretty awesome hills too. It was one of first few races that I did that made me think... I need to train on hills! Whew!

So, yes, I had a little difficulty navigating the hills, but I managed (I had walked them a couple days before while we explored the park, so we were acquainted already). My brother, whose is far more athletic than I (not to mention taller) slowed down his pace to stay with me, which was much appreciated! That's sibling love, people!

The race ended at the start. The post-race yummies were served at a side entrance for the zoo. They had everything from yogurt, apples, cinnamon raisin rolls, chocolate milk, water, sports drinks, and coffee. They did not, however, have bananas. How ironic is that? We're at the zoo and there were no bananas to eat! I missed my banana!

Where's the banana?!? 

After we ate breakfast we visited some more of our favorite animals at the zoo before moving on to greater adventures outside of Forest Park. 

This is definitely a race that I would do again. For those with children, this is a race for the family too! Just bring bananas!

Source of course map here. Source of logo here.