Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Sunday

I feel very accomplished this morning! Dragged myself out of bed at 8:30am, not to hunt for Easter eggs like the usual Easter Sunday morning (yes, my parents still love the look on our faces while we search for little presents of chocolate-y goodness around the house, even at 25 years old), but for my weekend long run!

Did the same route as last time I was home but pushed it a little further as I was aiming for 11k. It was absolutely BEATUIFUL this morning, the sun was shining, the birds were out and it was warm enough to just wear my long sleeve running shirt. I returned with a larger collection of freckles on my face as I was running straight into the sun for the first half of the run, lucky me!

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There were lots of ducks out this morning, by the road as well as in the Bay. This next picture is either Whynachts or Andrews Cove, not sure which, but it was absolutely stunning this morning.

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Shout out to Ali for giving me this headband! :) If you love Lululemon you should check out her blog here!

Since I started running I've been mapping my route using WalkJogRun.com. Although a great website and very useful to map out runs before hand or see how far you ran afterwards, measuring out distances was brutal as you had to trace the route very slowly along the path you wanted to make sure it was accurate and not cutting through houses/woods. A new website I am using, MapMyRun.com doesn't seem to have this problem.

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It's incredibly easy to use and you can click on your start spot and then your finish spot and it will fill in your route according to the road (if that's where you're running) in just two clicks. Very user friendly. It also tracks and saves your running recording distance, calories burned, elevation, etc., so you can look back and see previous runs. WalkJogRun also seems to have this feature but I found the format to be confusing and not as sleek and easy to use as MapMyRun. It also has an easy to use iPhone App version

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! I had a delicious Easter lunch today at Matt's mom's place topped off with coconut cream pie for dessert (yum!). I made some homemade gluten-free red velvet cupcakes (my parents are on a wheat-free kick, I'll do a post on this later). They turned out much better than expected. I used a combination of different wheat-free flours such as coconut and sorghum flour and you can't tell the difference at all, they are still super moist and fluffy. You can find the recipe here!

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Happy Easter!!

S

 

Thursday, March 28, 2013

The Thursday That Felt Like a Friday

Sorry for the delayed post! Was a bit of a hectic week although, looking back, I'm not sure I've accomplished much. Oh well! I did get all my runs in and that's what matters :)

Tuesday morning I fit a short run in before work, did 5k/36:21mins. Wish I would have done a bit longer but ran out of time. It's actually more efficient when I shower/get ready at the gym, I think I muck around too much at home in the morning and it takes much longer for me to actually get my butt out the door.

Wednesday night I went over to my friend Hilary's house for a little yoga! I haven't done it too much so she walked me through some of the moves. I'll be honest, we may have done more talking/catching up than actual yoga but it was fun all the same :) I think I may try harder to do yoga/pilates between runs to add some strength/core training and good stretching. My legs really can use a good stretch, especially after a long run on the weekends.


Speaking of Hilary, she actually has her own blog you should check out called Tru to Hils. Her blog was one of the reasons I started my own blog for my running, thought it was such a great idea. She posts about lots of stuff including style/fashion, her travels, life experiences, as well as shares her delicious recipes which are great, especially if you are looking for some dairy-free treats that are also tasty :)

 Got another run in early this morning, 6.5k/47:54. I was SO close this morning to not making it to the gym. I even set a new alarm for an hour later and everything. I don't know how I convinced myself to get up but I actually did, maybe I'm turning a new leaf and becoming a morning person? Nahhh...

By the state I'm in in this picture you can tell I just rolled of bed. By the end of the run I was definitely awake though!


Argyle was so quiet this morning! There did seem to be an excess of pigeons though, even more than usual...

Oh, just to add, Burrito Jax was at the SUB on Wednesday so we went down after class to give it a try. I don't know why I haven't been there yet since it's seconds from my apartment and my sister has told me to go a thousand times but after my burrito yesterday, I will definitely be going back. It  had everything you can think of that would go in an awesome burrito – dirty rice, black beans, sweet potato, lettuce, chili sauce, cheese, onions, tomato, sour cream, and of course guacamole! Delicious and inexpensive :) And plus it came in this cute little bag :P


Sunday, March 24, 2013

(Not So) Lazy Sunday

Oh Sundays. On the one hand Sunday is great because you can sleep in and have a lazy day but on the other, you know Monday is looming just around the corner :( I made a mushroom and spinach frittata for brunch this morning, worked out better than I thought!


Yum! It was delicious :) I also was able to make it to the gym for a long run 10k/6.5 miles in 1:16:81 mins. I took it really easy and did alternate walking/running. It was such a good run and I surprisingly felt amazing after, wasn't even out of breath! I don't think I've been to the gym late on a Sunday afternoon and was surprised to be the only one in the cardio room!


Going to have a well-deserved rest day tomorrow and then another short run on Tuesday. I've been putting off running outside again because of the weather. The nice warm gym is just sooo tempting on these cold days. I'll be excited when Spring has finally settled in and I have no excuses not to run outside :P

Hope you all had a great weekend.

S

Thursday, March 21, 2013

No pain, no gain

Got a chance to try out my new shoes today, finally! Did another 4 mile/47:17mins. Felt great and went pretty smooth. The shoes were super comfortable and I think helped with the knee pain that I've been feeling after I run. They have good support and are nice and light :)


Going to keep this one short since I've got to study for tomorrow's post-poned exam. Wish me luck!

S

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Find a little balance

It was a "half" snow day today! Dalhousie was closed in the morning due to the huge snow fall we had last night and then re-opened at noon. Because our exam was supposed to start at 11:30am it is post-poned till Friday! I won't complain about that :)

Took a trip to the mall after my chem lab today (last one of the semester!) and was able to return the Nike shoes that didn't fit right and trade them in for a pair of New Balance 3090V2 in blue. They are so comfortable and I love the flashy colours. I'm going to try them out on my run tomorrow night to make sure they feel good, even after 45 mins of running.


The weather was AWFUL out there today, disguised by a beautifully sunny day. They plowed the roads after the snowfall last night but this left pedestrians stuck with giant lakes at every crosswalk and piles of snow that made you have to actually walk INTO the road in order to get to the side walk. My feet were soaked by the time I made it to campus! And the wind was insane, my hair kept flying into my mouth which was not fun.

Update:

I found this cool website www.greatist.com , a health and wellness site offering well-rearched nutrition tips and workout plans often citing articles from scientific journals. It's also founded by a 25 year old Harvard graduate and by the looks of him, if he follows tips on his own site, I'd say it works! :P

Sitting down to a nice plate of honey garlic chicken with wild rice, carrots, green sweet pepper and onions. Yum!




Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Oh, for the love of Chem

Had a long day today, worked a full day then spent a couple hours studying for my Organic Chem exam tomorrow :S I was still able to get a good run in at the Y afterwards, 6.5k (4 miles)/47:15. Slightly faster time than last week, average pace being 11:49/mile. Looking forward to getting that under 10 min/mile although it will probably be a while. I'm still shocked by how much I am enjoying running, having really never been much of a runner before. It's something I surprisingly look forward to and I have fun trying to push myself a little more. Although I'm also being careful not to get carried away as I know if I push myself too hard or think of it as a competition I am going to not enjoy it so much any more. 

I bought some really nice Nikes from Sport Chek but I have to take them back tomorrow since after wearing them around the house for a while I realized they just weren't wide enough and could feel them squeezing the side of my feet :( I'm going to look at some New Balance shoes that are made for wide-footed individuals, lots of room for my clown feet :D


Looking forward to my exam being over tomorrow – I'm going to celebrate my returning the shoes and doing a little "run" shopping :P (Emphasis on "little", I promise –Mom:)) Was thinking I could use some better socks as well. Anyways, I enjoyed a nice fruit smoothie after my run tonight and dove right into my OChem book! About to head to bed now to get some good shut eye before tomorrow.



G'night!

S

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Happy Pre-St. Patty's Day!

So I was all set to go for a run outside today, got up around 9 and was out the door by 9:30 only to find the side walks covered in ice! I walked for about 15 mins thinking it would get better but I was slip-sliding all over the place so I had to call it quits. I went back to the apartment and grabbed my gym stuff and headed to the Y. I just did 5k on the treadmill as, although I didn't experience shin splints this time, my legs were still pretty sore from yesterday, especially my knees. I think I will need to make sure to have a day in between my runs from now on so I don't have to sacrifice distance due to soreness. It was a good run though, and by the time I was heading home all the ice had melted so at least it wasn't a scary walk home lol

Happy early St. Patty's Day! I'm getting my lime jello shots for the party tonight, I used coconut rum which sounded like it would be yummy ;P Happy partying (and running)!

S

Friday, March 15, 2013

TGIF!

Woohoo it's Friday! So glad it's the weekend :)Ended the week on a good note with a 4 mile (7k) run on the treadmill in 48:55min. Spent the first mile mostly walking due to MAJOR shin splints. It was awful, I definitely thought about stopping but I was looking forward to clearing 7k tonight so I just walked every time they got bad. Next time I can lower my time significantly for sure :) Very proud of myself for getting it done on a Friday night. The weather has been so crappy lately and we got even more snow today (I thought we only had 6 more weeks of winter Punxsutawney Phil!) so I haven't been able to run outside the past couple of days. Excited for the spring weather so there are fewer excuses not to run outside :P

Wore my new lulu lemon tank and crops and they were very comfortable. LOVE.

Took a pic of the treadmill and the Y, love the TV! Way bigger than watching shows in my iPhone (which I usually do). Got some Gilmore Girls on there :)

Have a great Friday night!

S

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Look good, feel good

Afternoon! Having a rest day today, I have a lot of things at home/school work I've been neglecting so I thought I could be productive on my day off training and get some studying and housework done after work. It's amazing how things can pile up! I also need to raid the Dollar Store for stuff to celebrate St. Patty's Day on Saturday (Wooo!). I plan on getting my long run out of the way Saturday morning so I have the rest of the day to clean/prepare.

The weather was kind of crappy today so I kind of don't mind not running this morning but I think unfortunately this is going to carry on for the next couple of days. Oh well, morning run in the rain tomorrow! Might be refreshing :P

I'm thinking I might squeeze a little work out in tonight – maybe try some Pilates moves?

Can't wait to try out my new Lululemon gear on my run tomorrow :) Look good, feel good!

S

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Slow and easy

We took it easy this morning and only did a short run: 4k/31mins. Daylight savings has made it so dark in the morning now so it was a lot harder to get up. It was sprinkling a bit although much warmer than usual which I found made the run a lot easier. I can't do too many more of these short runs as I gotta get used to running longer distances. Good thing though was we pushed ourselves to go faster so I'm happy with this morning's run.

I'm adding an additional run morning (Thursday) so we are going to do two longer runs (6.5k) Thursday and Friday morning and then the plan for Saturday is 9.5k. I think I'll feel pretty good if I can stick with this plan :)

I'm hopefully getting some new running gear this week. New shoes, long sleeve shirt and crops. I could feel a blister forming from this morning's run so maybe need to look at some different socks too. It's so excited getting new stuff! Exercising is that much more fun when you look good doing it ;)

Enjoy your day!

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Good to be home

I was so glad to take a trip to Mahone Bay this weekend. It's been a while since I've been home and I love hanging out with my parents and the dog and cats. I also missed my super comfy bed and a fully stocked fridge ;)

Got off to a late start this morning and didn't make it on the road until about 9:40am. Still had a good run, I think the route I mapped out was slightly less than 8k and I finished in about 54mins. Pretty slow but it's still only the second week of training :) Was great running by the bay, I almost forgot how beautiful nature was living in the city! Here's a couple pics :)



I also am sneaking in a pic of a purse I just bought at Spring which I am absolutely in love with! I'm loving the 90s vibe lately and it was on sale for only $20!



Friday, March 8, 2013

Another day down

Woke up at 6:45am this morning to meet @tmyousef at 7:30 for our 5k this morning. Did a little loop around to SMU and then ran down Tower Rd. to Point Pleasant and back. Once we start doing longer runs I'm hoping to go through Point Pleasant Park, I feel like it would be a nice spot to run. I'm heading home to the Bay this weekend so I'm mapping out an 8k route for Saturday (I'm using www.walkjogrun.com, great website for determining distances of your runs).

Took some before and after shots this morning! I surprisingly don't look as dead as I felt!

Before:

 After:
I was going for tired (because I was) but my expression ended up... weird... 
Thanks for joining me this morning @tmyousef!

Update


I REALLY want a new pair of Nike trainers as I think I've had these running shoes for 5 years maybe?


I've been eyeing these Nike Free 4.0 Women's Running Shoe, they look incredibly comfortable. Not sure what level of support would be best though (3.0 vs. 4.0 vs. 5.0). Will have to go in the store to try them out. I'm thinking I'll use them as a reward to myself once I've gotten through a couple more weeks of training (and when I can actually afford them!)





Thursday, March 7, 2013

And so it begins...

So I have officially started training for the Half Marathon! My training schedule involves two short runs and one long run per week as well as 2-3 days of cross training (usually elliptical or bike at the gym) and 1-2 days of rest. Had a good day on the elliptical at the gym on Monday and did a shorter run than usual on Tuesday morning (~4k). Tonight is going to be another gym session followed by 6k run Friday morning! Dragging myself out of bed to do these morning runs has been miserable and I certainly hope it is going to get easier. Gotta push through though – only 72 days left! I actually am enjoying running, something I never thought I'd say :) Stay tuned for future posts and pics from my runs :) Thank you all for your support.

S