Great Job Marathoners!

I just wanted to do a shout out to all the runners who ran this morning in the Big D Half Marathon and Full Marathon! I got to White Rock Lake to do my weekly 9 miler - totally spacing out that the race was today!

I ran on the edge of the course for a little while before I veered off and tried out the trails further afield. I never used the trailers before, but I actually like it. Granted their conditions were nasty, but I didn't sprain an ankle! I also discovered Winfrey Point. So beautiful.

Thank you marathoners for not only getting me to try a new part of the WRL, but I want to especially thank you for running this race! It was inspiring to watch every single one of you. I hope that I will achieve the same stamina, endurance, and determination that you all have!

Oh, and because of your race, after my run - in the parking lot - I got to educate a cyclist to the fact that there were such things as marathons that happen throughout the year - not just the big Dallas Marathon in December!


Great job to all runners out there today!

OMaD - Week 15 Recap

This past week's One Mile A Day is brought to you by sunburns, aloe vera gel, and the first full week of April!

April 5 - 11

Day 89: 2.5 mile - Spent Easter Sunday with the family. Slept in, had a healthy breakfast, went to the Dallas Zoo to check out the beautiful animals and the new dinosaur stuff (which was very cool!), then ate an Easter ham dinner complete with jellybeans and rice krispy treats for dessert - a dessert that I actually started out eating earlier in the day, to be honest .

Day 90:  9.03 miles - So about those jellybeans and rice krispy treats from the day before. Not good for day-before-long run food. I started out with a 3:1 interval plan at White Rock Lake, but at the halfway point I bonked. The next 4.5 miles was spent mostly walking with short bursts of running. Plus, the clouds disappeared a lot faster than predicted. So, guess what?! I got the most awesome painful sunburn that I have had in over a year. Seriously. This is what I do when I move/lay on or see my sunburn:

Day 91: 1 mile - No comment other than I did a mile. I'm tired, my stomach hurts, and the world kinda sucks today. But I got to talk to one of my brothers today, which was pretty awesome though!

Day 92: 3.5 miles - First night ever on an elliptical! All part of getting into a new routine that involves cross training! Interesting experience. I'm sure if I'm totally doing it right, but I felt it in my legs. The gym was busy, and my little TV screen wouldn't cooperate so it was hard to have a distraction other my music.

Day 93: 4.16 miles - I walked one mile in the morning to wake me up. Ran a 5k late that night after the storm blew over my area. I was glad that I didn't have to use the treadmill tonight!

Day 94: 1 mile - I wanted to try to do more than one mile today, but my brain wasn't into it.

Day 95: 1 mile - I was antsy to go for a run all day today, but I knew I had a 9 miler on Sunday. I was a good girl and ate a dinner, dessert and cleaned the home before I went out for a walk - just to make sure I wasn't going to run. Hee hee.

Total Miles this week:  22.19 Miles

Total Miles Thus Far: 191.68 miles

Video clip found here.

Food Friday - Eggy Spinach Taco

Welcome to my first Food Friday post. I mentioned ages and ages that one of my big goals for 2015 is to better my nutrition. I still love my junk food, but I seriously love eating healthy too. I'm not the greatest cook, but I'm certainly going to give it a try!

After my long run on Monday I ate this Eggy Spinach Taco for lunch. Until then I never made one before. I was at my parents' house, staring inside the fridge. What to eat? What to eat that is healthy? My mom is Gluten Free and my Dad, well, isn't. I grabbed a gluten free tortilla, an egg some other stuff and bam! A pretty tasty taco. This is great for a post-run meal, and have made it already a few times this week!

This is a pretty simple and customizable taco, which I like a lot. I think next time I'll be add some potatoes. Mmmmm... Potatoes. 

This reminds me of an awesome taco joint near White Rock Lake called Good 2 Go Taco. It's really tasty! Man, I just realized that I haven't been there in so long!  

Sorry, my plate presentation isn't the greatest!

Ingredients 

• 1 Tortilla, your choice 
• 1 egg, fried or scrambled 
• 1 handful of spinach 
• 2 TBSP of cheese, your choice 
• 2 TBSP salsa, your choice
• Add any extra ingredient that you would like! 

Recipe 

1.   If desired, heat tortilla while the frying pan is warming up. Flip once. Add cheese to the tortilla after flipping. Remove from pan.

2. Cook egg to liking.

3. If desired, add spinach to pan for 30 seconds to soften up.

4. Top tortilla with cooked eggs and spinach. You can tear the spinach apart or remove the stems if you like too.

5. Add salsa on top or on the side.

6. Enjoy!


I also paired this with an apple since I was really hungry.

What are some of your go-to meals after a run?

I Just Couldn't Help Myself...

So the other day my Running Buddy H told me how she had bought two sports bras at Old Navy for $8 a pop. Ironically enough I was wondering if it was time for me to buy some new ones. It's been a year since I bought my uber nice ones from the local running store, but I've also trimmed up a bit last Fall (I think they're fine since they aren't too bad looking and I still have enough support, but you got to wonder.). I was a little skeptical that I would find one at Old Navy that would give me the support I needed, but I thought I'd take a look. It was a perfect excuse to go shopping, anyway! Hee hee.

Well, I did find a bra that works - amazing!

Then I got into a little trouble...

I found an awesome pair of purple capris - my first pair of colored bottoms! Uber exciting, but I might have to wait till the fall to put them to the running test. They'll be good for cross-training in my apartment though (I'm thinking I need to give yoga a try... again. Maybe H can come over and help.). Or for the stay-at-home movie times I have my with my besties.

And... I found a pair of compression shorts that are long enough for my uber long legs. No chaffing with any ride-up with wear here, buddy! I'm glad I found these cause I really needed another pair to alternate between (I don't run in the shorts).

So, when I decided that I needed these new bottoms, which were on sale by the way, I started thinking... "Dot! You need to spend money on clothes that can be worn at work or out somewhere nice... if you ever went out, that is."

Oh, yeah.  

So, I bought two cardigans what will go nicely with the dresses I bought during my three-day-after-break-up shopping spree. There, problem solved. You see them bunched up in the corner of the picture.

I had a bit of buyer's remorse right as I swiping my card to pay for these lovelies, but I needed them. Right? I'm still excited to wear them, which means it was worth the money!

Oh, and I finally got the correct ribbon for my Dallas Rhythm and Blues Quarter Marathon medal. I love the colors on this one versus the one that Houston got (and that I had originally) - Sorry, Houston! All I had to do was cut the old ribbon off and lace the new one through. There was velco to keep the ribbon together. Not the most comfortable thing to wear, but the medals are generally on display after I wear it the hours after the race.

Pretty colors!

How long do you keep your running bra? 

What race medal/medal ribbon do you like the best?

Life's Little BIG Thing - Aloe Vera Coolness

The other day I accidentally got a nasty sun burn during a nasty 9 mile that I bonked in the middle of. The weather forcast said there was going to be clouds all during the time of my run, but that was a big fat lie not true! All last year I pretty much had been a good girl in applying my sun lotion (what I call sunscreen), thus this is my first big sunburn in over a year. Eeeow!

It wasn't until I got home hours and hours later (spent the day with the parental units) that I was able to apply my aloe vera. My wonderful TMNT radioactive goo colored aloe vera... that has lidocaine. The moment I slathered that stuff on I was singing like the angels in Heaven. Omigosh, did it feel amazing!!! Can you imagine sitting in front or under a fan after you've applied it? Wow!

So, this week's little thing that is more of a big thing right now.... Aloe Vera. Love this stuff, people!

The good stuff!

OMaD - Week 14 Recap

Ready for this past week's One Mile A Day recap?! End of March and onto April, peeps!

March 29 - April 04  

Day 82: 1 mile - 00 official burpees - Did the minimum today. I got caught up reading my book club book before bed (yes, it's that good!) and forgot the burpees.

Day 83:  9.01 miles - 00 official burpees - I took my mom to White Rock Lake for the very first time, which she liked. I could've done burpees but decided that eating Starburst Jellybeans was a far better idea... until I felt sick. I should've done the burpees the moment I got back from the lake and not later that night. Ack!

Day 84: 1 mile - 00 official burpees - Want my excuse to not doing burpees? I don't have one! No more burpee challenge... which I kind of sucked at!

Day 85: 2.3 miles - I didn't bonk, but I initially wanted to do a 5k. The Garmin was dying and when I stopped for a swig of water at 2.3 I just stopped.

Day 86: 1 mile - Just a walk. I wanted to run, but my sinuses were threatening to be something more.

Day 87: 3.12 miles -

Day 88: 0 miles - I spent the evening with my work friends eating tacos and drinking margaritas to the point that I remembered why I drink daiquiris instead of margaritas let alone drink at all- tummy oy! Night started out with an anxiety attack when the ex showed up (he's was an former employee, and I didn't know he was going to be there. I was 1.5 hours late to the party and he was 2 hrs late.), but it got better. My cat gave me a look of "Do you know what time is is, young lady?" when I got home at 1am.

Total Miles this week:  17.43 Miles

Total Miles Thus Far: 169.49 miles

Running Safely at Night

Night running. I wasn't a fan of it until recently. Let me explain. If any of you read my One Mile A Day - Week 6 recap (it's ok if you didn't - at least you're reading this post!), you would've seen a mention that my then-boyfriend that I loved dearly decided that we should go back to just being friends (huge back story as to why - maybe I'll talk about it some other time). For months, after our busy jobs that made us work late on certain nights, we would meet up at night to go out or just hang at my place. It was wonderful. However, since the beginning of February there's been a void in my after-work night life. What a way to remind you that you don't have a special someone at the moment. Meh. 

Well, now with all the free time at night I would find myself upset, lost, lazy, and lonely - the most awesome (ha!) side effects of a break-up. Even vegging out on TV (something I love to do), playing with Jackson (my cat you'll meet soon enough) and planning my running schedule (I love to plan) wasn't enough distraction for me. Plus, my friends can't be on call all the time. Hee hee.

So, what does a girl do? RUN!

Beyond dealing with personal roller coaster that is life, I started considering some factors:

• We're having better weather up here in North Texas - hello, Spring! I love you!
• That I love sleep and tend to sleep in on the mornings I have free during the week.
• That I need to work on getting my body use to training more often during the week (all part of my plan to prepped for the marathon training down the line - did I mention I love to plan and be prepared as best as possible?).

So, yes! In the past two weeks I've become a weeknight runner. I run between 2 miles or a full 5k around my apartment complex some time after 9pm at least once a week. I'm trying to upgrade that to two nights a week. Crazy? Perhaps. When I first started running two years ago all the safety tips that I saw said to either avoid running at night or be extremely careful for various reasons. Very valid points. I keep all of that in mind when I go out, actually, but I still go out.

Funny enough Women's Running Magazine in the past few days shared the 5 Rules to Stay Safe During Night Runs and New Apps Keeping Runners Safe. What timing, right?!

The 5 Rules are pretty straight forward and common sense, but it's always a good reminder. If you don't know them - seriously, read the rules! Plus, runners have the perfect excuse for wearing those neon colors!

The new apps are interesting to me because I run over at White Rock Lake on one of my days off. And I generally don't tell anyone (unless I'm leaving from the family's house - a place that I visit far more often since February). Of the two apps  I'm interested in Glympse because for one thing I don't need to pay for anything and because I don't need to have a phone app to track my runs. But RunSafe has its benefits too. Though the Panic Button would seem a bit inaccessible if it's in a running belt like my Fitletcis one, which makes me take a minute or two the phone or key out of. Glympse has a 4 hour time span, but I wouldn't be running longer than that by myself - at least I don't think so. I'm going to hem and haw over getting one of these, but I think one would good for when I'm out at night.

Dot's Tips for Night Running
So, in addition to common practice things with running at night here are some other pointers that I've got to share. First some basics then some others:

1. Wear bight colors!
I'm guilty of wearing mostly black (or all black during the winter), but seriously peeps runners have the best excuse to wear neon colors! Perhaps I luck out a little cause I rock the pale alabaster skin tone, and my legs can reflect headlights nicely. Naw, I should wear neon no matter what.

2. Run against traffic!
It's a way to see the cars, but also to see if there is any trouble coming your way (other than the fact there are cars next to your sidewalk!). I always prefer running against traffic and plan my run accordingly. Only once do I need to have my back to traffic but it's for only one block.

3. Bring your phone and ID. 
I know some runners go without their phone, but at night it's best that you do. Even if you don't use one of those new safety apps, if you need to call for help you're not without! I typically forget to pack my license when I go out, but it is a good idea to have it. But if you had an awesome Road ID then wear that!

4. Mix up routine/route.
They always say that the bad guys tend to pick up on consistency. In some ways I don't have much of an option when it comes to where I can run at night, but I don't have a set time and I do mix up when and where I turn.

5. Consider running with a small mace/pepper spray.
If you have a running belt or an armband you should be able to fit in somewhere. I don't have one, but my RB does. P.S. - Make sure it's legal for you to carry it!

6. If your clothes don't have any reflective parts or you're anti-neon consider buying a headlamp. 
I have a Princeton Tech Byte headlamp. Bought it cause the street lights around my apartment were crappy But, as usual, the lights were repaired by the time I spent the money at REI. Also, my ex-boyfriend ran at night a lot since his job started at 6:30 every morning, and I figured that it would another way for us to get together. Whatever. Seriously, this is a nice headlamp and doesn't bounce around too much and isn't heavy. It's also perfect when you're reading in bed at night!

7. Take a Runner's Self Defense class. 
This tips applies to all runners regardless of what time of day they run, but especially those at night. Check with your local running store to see if they have any classes coming up or look around online for tips. Here are some helpful links:

• How to Stay Safe on the Run - Runner's World video 
• RunSafer - lots of videos to view in the Techniques portion of the sight. They're also on Facebook.

Well, these are just a few pointers for me. Plus, a glimpse into what's going on in my head and heart right now. This new running time might change once I hit my new training schedule, especially for the marathon, but for now it's helps me a lot and I love it. Plus, it helps me fall asleep faster - super bonus!!!

When do you prefer to run? Morning, afternoon or night?

Do you have any tips about running safe for all times, but especially at night?

Images found here and here.