Mermaid 1/2 Marathon Recap and 100th Post!

Hello everyone! I’m back with another race recap and a successful half marathon this past Saturday because… I FINALLY PRed MY HALF MARATHON TIME! More on that later, because I’m getting too excited and slightly carried away. I’m happy this recap is also my 100th blog post. Thanks for sticking it out with my grammatical errors, infrequency in posting, and clusters of thoughts!First things first: Little Italy in San Diego is the place to go with your roommates the night before your race for endless carbo-loading possibilities. Margherita pizza: I owe a lot of my race day success to you. Race morning- Don’t let this smile fool you. I was absolutely freezing the entire time. When we woke up that morning, it was foggy and I almost thought I made a poor decision on my race day outfit. I knew I had to represent Oiselle and my flockmates… but I wish I had leggings on the entire time. Oh, as you can see, beyond being cold, I had another race day emergency: I couldn’t find my watch the morning of! I have never ran a race watchless but it fell out of my backpack the night before and was left somewhere at Anthony’s house. I quickly read an article on Runner’s World about how to race timeless…. Clearly it was one emergency after another that morning. Sometimes you got to just shake it off before the race starts, throw out a flex picture, and work your hardest on the course.  And it worked! All smiles post race because…. I PRed! By five minutes! I spent the entire race using people as markers for how fast I wanted to go, where I should reign it back, when I should pick up the speed, and when I should give it my all. When I looked at the clock as I was able to pass the finish line, it read 1:44:07. I couldn’t believe my eyes. My goal was to hit a 1:45 when my past best time was 1:49 but I did not expect it to happen with that morning’s conditions or to PR by five minutes. After the chip time was calculated, turns out I finished in 1:44:02, came in 4th in my age group, and top fifty overall! I was a little sad the race didn’t have medals and necklaces instead, but sometimes you just got to change it up. Still can’t believe the time!
Craving all the salt, potatoes, and brunch food post-race. What made the day even better was seeing this girl! She works at LinkedIn and we became friends the past few months when she recruited me. The job didn’t work out, but I’m sure happy our friendship did. Shaking out the tired and sore legs with a little walk around La Jolla Shores. She secretly misses the beach after spending so much time in Northern California!  And obviously had to get some of the good stuff: the real reason why I run. Oreos Cookies ‘n Cream, you were the perfect choice. As if I didn’t have enough pasta the entire week, I had more of Annie’s Homegrown Organic Mac and Cheese with vegetables and half a vegetable pastry. I spent the rest of the day foam rolling, studying, eating, and living on cloud nine from the race results. :)

Now to focus on marathon training and doing better on the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon. I am energized, motivated, and know how to learn from the mistakes of my full last year. I’m determined to make this the best racing season yet! Not to mention we have about 15 weeks…. It’s crunch time!

Any races coming up?

Race day: watch or no watch? 

Favorite meal of the day? Mine will always be brunch.

Double Digit Runs and All The Food My Stomach Can Hold

This has been a super good running week for me. There are some weeks where getting out of bed is tough and I have to constantly remind myself that I love it when I’m actually running, so stop being silly, brain. Selfies at mile 5! I was suppose to go a shorter distance this weekend since I had the 15K last weekend, but I figured I would do the shorter run this weekend and do a longer run this weekend. Next weekend, I’ll be in Chicago and the idea of running 10 miles on a treadmill makes me cringe! 6, I can manage, so 10 miles on Saturday it was! Over 70 degrees… why am I wearing long sleeves? Thanks for the heads up, Mother Nature! I keep trying new and artsy ways to take photos of my mileage. I think this grass and fence in my neighborhood offers up a very dynamic backdrop. One more week until Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon training begins! The only logical thing to do after a long run is to eat… all day… starting with brunch! It’s kind of our thing:) Egg white omelette stuffed with vegetables, fruit, and an English muffin toasted with butter. I couldn’t think of a better way to refuel. Hugs from my little one is also greatly appreciated! She has been going to the gym a lot this quarter too and getting into a healthier lifestyle. Proud of all her progress so far. Now to convince her to run a half marathon with me… A few hours later, I was back to the eating game. The Melting Pot has an amazing happy hour deal where cheese and chocolate is $5/$6 per person. Don’t mind if I do! Spinach and artichoke dip and fighting my friend for all the honey wheat pieces of bread. This gets really intense. The entire time we were fonduing, I was just thinking about the chocolate, which is the best part. Since race season is in full swing, I have been a lot more careful about my diet and food choices. Including going easy on the desserts, but I was saving myself all week, knowing I would go to the Melting Pot! Chocolate smores fondue, you do not disappoint:)

27.89 miles total this week! Foam rolling, resting, and homeworking all day to feel rested for next week’s training cycle!

How was your weekend?

Favorite guilty pleasure treat? 

Sweet or savory type of person at brunch?– Normally, I go sweet over savory but I’m going through this weird ketchup phase where I really like putting ketchup on things… and it’s easier to do with eggs.

I’m Free, A Weekend of Food, and My Training Plan

NO. MORE. FINALS! I’m free, free, free! Once I stepped of my Friday final, felt the sunshine on my face, and winter break kick in, I felt so happy and free. This has probably been the roughest 10-15 weeks of my life and I’m ready to enjoy the holidays and to start 2015 fresh. My favorite way to celebrate is wearing our sorority ugly Christmas sweaters, taking cheesy holiday pictures while we wait for our seats for brunch, and obviously brunch! Kaitlyn and I decided to go to Snooze AM Eatery for brunch on Saturday. Apparently we weren’t the only ones with that idea in mind and ended up having to wait 45 minutes for our seat. Luckily, the restaurant is located in a really cute boutique area, so we walked around, and stumbled upon this little bakery. Cinnamon sugar muffin, I’ll be back for you. The start to a weekend of food. Kaitlyn got peanut butter and chocolate pancakes with a side of hash browns, and I got eggs with hash browns and their pancake of the day, Banana Oat! I think I can safely say that Snooze has made it into my top five favorite places for brunch.  Then dinner at True Food Kitchen with Marie! There were a bunch of people I wanted to catch up with this weekend at the end of the quarter, and before winter break. Spaghetti Squash Casserole and Grilled Vegetable Salad, you hit the spot! This morning started off with a three mile run and then lunch with Gurleen at Cafe Cayote! One of the biggest reason I ate out a lot this weekend too was because we are currently out of food at home, since we are leaving in a few days before vacation. I’ll be excited not to spend so much money and have more home cooked meals at Anthony’s place! And no weekend of food is complete with my favorite form of dessert. Peppermint ice cream from Baskin Robbins made me realize how sad I’ll be when holiday flavors and food will be gone!I also wanted to share with you my training plan and where I generally get them! I haven’t gotten to the point where I can create my own schedule. I tried a few times throughout my marathon training to tack on more miles, but my body just couldn’t handle it yet. I’m hoping this cycle of training, I’ll be stronger to handle more! As of right now, I am using Hal Higdon’s 1/2 Marathon Intermediate Training plan to plan for my 15K. Where it says 10K in the plan, is where I’m going to replace it with my 15K.

I love Hal Higdon’s training plan because it has different levels of training for whatever level of running you are at, and tells you where to add strength training, speed work, tempo runs, and ways to mix up your run. With the new year, starts a new plan for my May Marathon, and I still need to figure out how to training for Ragnar… Let me know if you have any plans or suggestions!

What were some of your weekend eats?

Did any of you have finals and if so, how were they? 

What training plans do you like to use?