Two run Thursday

No, I don't plan to run twice every Thursday, that's just how today went...lol. I did my run first in the afternoon while hubby was at work.

Then I ran with him as he did his C25k W2D2.



He seems to benefit from me running with him. So I'm going to try to keep it up.

U-Pick

Yum!
Nothin' better than fresh hand-picked Strawberries!



We took the kids to pick strawberries this evening. It was a good day for it 70's and cloudy so we didn't have the sun beating down on us.



A local farmer does this u-pick every year. I love supporting them...and I love farm fresh fruits and veggies!!


That's my little man picking berries...so cute.


and my baby girl....testing the product. (it's u-pick...not u-eat...lol)


That's me showing Buddy which berries to pick.


That's my hubby holding our bounty...that's 12 pounds worth of Strawberries!! Cost us $15. We'll be eating strawberries forever.

I also started the week out right with a nice 6 mile run this morning. I ran down to the local park and back. Coming back is a challenge coz it's all up hill. Ugh.
I got home just before it started to rain.

Today's Half-Training Run:
Time: 1:21:06
Distance: 6.04 miles
Pace: 13:25

Low Mileage...

....MUST STICK TO SCHEDULE....



......



Didn't happen.

I get freaky about my running schedule. I plan this running thing all out and I like to stick with my plan. My precious, precious, plan.




Yeah, like that.

Adorable right?

This week wreaked havoc on my schedule. Missing runs, shorter distances, even the cherished Sunday Long Run suffered. The week of 6/20 I had kicked out 27 miles! This week...just 16 miles. Between family, work, and sleep, it seemed to be impossible to find time to get my runs in. This morning, I was just too tired to run. So I didn't, I slept.
I figured I'd just run later in the day, no biggy. Well, when later came, I had family over...so I couldn't leave then, and when they left... Hubby suggested I do C25k W1D3 with him...so that's what I did. after we did his run we walked around the neighborhood for awhile, to build up some miles for me. We got 3.76mi and hubby was spent so we walked home. Not the "long run" I was hoping for. But, something anyway.

I'm a little bummed that my plan got so messed up. But, Monday starts a new week. A fresh start. That is supposed to be a rest day for me. But, I'm not resting. I feel like I've been resting all week. So tomorrow I'm running... not sure how far. Maybe 3mi..maybe more, we'll see.

Shopping FAIL

Every day is a new day I'm reminded of my past
Every time there's another storm I know that it wont last
Every moment I'm filled with hope
cause i get another chance
But I will try I will try
Got nothing left to hide

I'm beautifully broken and I don't mind if you know it
I'm beautifully broken and I don't care if I show it.

Beautifully Broken by Ashlee Simpson

So today I went shopping, should have ran my scheduled 3 miles, but I went shopping instead. Things were going great until I stopped by Dick's Sporting Goods to look at running shorts...

At this point I should mention, I don't own a full length mirror. I also should mention that the Vegan diet seems to make you feel amazing and energetic. So I haven't even thought about my body image in several weeks. I've just been running and eating and living life. I know from my clothes that I've been losing weight but I haven't stepped on a scale in a few weeks...I get number crazy. So I have vowed to stay away from the scale until July 1st. all that said...

I walked over to the running shorts feeling like Ms.Thang. I knew I wanted/needed compression shorts for my thigh-flab issues. But I also wanted to get some shorts. then I saw them, shorts with built in compression shorts. How cool. I'm trying them on!

XL? L ? I have been losing weight I'll try them both. And with that I skipped off to the fitting room. Beaming with confidence I grabbed the L first. and put them on, slid them right on! Hell Yeah I knew it! Go Vegan! Go Vegan! Yeah. Then I looked into the mirror... and the party was over. Staring into the mirror I saw my legs. The legs I feel so proud of, the legs that run 9 miles....but, what I felt, and what I saw were not the same thing.


In my head my legs were awesome, powerful, beautiful. But when I looked in the mirror, they were old, and fat. The compression shorts ended in a tender part of my inner thigh and cut in just a bit, enough to really showcase the lovely thigh cheese I was growing there. My mood sunk. I wasn't a runner, I wasn't fit and healthy. I was old, fat, used up, worthless. A fool to believe that true change was possible. I tried on the XL and it was bigger, but the issue was the same. I am a size L and I should be happy about that...but I wasn't. I gathered everything and went back out into the store. Hubby was a bit stunned by my quick mood change, but he caught on to what was going on. I told him I was ready to leave, I wanted out of the store.

An old saga was trying to play itself out again. The words spilled into my brain like the lines of a well rehearsed play. "Not good enough", "Give Up", "Failure". These are all the lines my Internalized Parent/Super Ego likes to feed me. The next step in the play would be the appearance of my Id/Child which would mean crying, eating bad food and feeling depressed...sometimes for weeks. Those two, (parent and child) would battle it out and when the dust settled, my ego would then emerge from the rubble to clean it all up again. That's when I'd "start running again" or "go on a diet". The initial trigger was different each time, but the result was the same, conflict, pleasure seeking, depression, guilt and fear.

We had some different errands to run so hubby took care of those as I sat in the car thinking.

It is true, I'm not where I want to be weight wise. But, that shouldn't negate the the fact that I have lost weight, or that I'm a size smaller now...yeay! My inner thighs do have some cellulite on them and maybe I'm not ready to where shorts that short. But, I'm coming along, I just have to give it time. NOTHING CHANGED the only thing that was different was my emotions. I can choose to look at the positive, or focus on the negative.
It is my choice.

But, You know what? It's all good. Because, I saw this whole thing attempt to play out. I caught it in time to do something different. I realized the trappings of my past, I felt sad for the moment, but I kept to my plan. I did not medicate with food. I reasoned through my emotions and I've got a run planned for Sunday morning. I may still stumble but Perfection is not the goal. Moving forward in health...that is the goal!

Let them eat...Pizza?

lol, yes I'm still vegan. And yes I've been told vegan pizza is an abomination... but hey, don't knock it till you try it! Tonight was pizza night. Yummy pizza which is definitely a favorite of mine. This time, done vegan. It's not hard to make a plant based pizza, and it can be AWESOME. Here's how I did it.

Get a pre-made plant based pizza crust. Yes you could and probably should make your own, but I'm really bad a making dough...so premade crust it is.



1 Natures HiLights Brown Rice Pizza Crust (looks to be about 10" diameter)
1 Jar Eden Organic Pizza Sauce
1 bag of Daiya Mozzarella Shreds
Spinach (chopped)
green pepper (diced)
Roma tomato (sliced like pepperoni)
mushroom (sliced)
black olives (sliced)

I follow the directions for the crust and pre-cooked it then pulled it back out and topped it with the pizza sauce and veggies and viola... vegan pizza.



The Diaya really seems like cheese, and is amazing on the pizza!
Since there were 2 crusts in the package hubby and I figured we'd each cook up one and make it our own way. Well if there is one thing I can say for sure about vegan eating...it is FILLING. So I actually only ate 3 of the four pieces you see in the picture above. We should have cooked up just the one crust after all. Old Pizza habits die hard..sigh. From now on we are going to just make one pizza and each eat half.

As for running, Hubby talked me out of the 5 miler I had planned for today, and into running the C25k W1D2 with him. It was nice to go back to my C25k roots. W1D2 is so easy now. It's amazing how fast my mileage and endurance have grown

Today's Memory Run:
Time: 01:02:20
Distance: 3.26
Pace: 19:07

A change will do you good.

Today I had to alter my running plans. I hate, hate, HATE, changing my running plans on the fly. But, This morning I was just toooooo tired (worked all night) so I went home and went to bed. I didn't sleep very well either. I was up by 3:30pm about 5 hours sleep...not enough, but I couldn't sleep anymore either. The house was HOT, 88 degrees outside with humidity around the 80% mark UGH, sooo, yucky.

Well, after considering all that I decided 3 miles may not happen today. I even thought running may not happen at all today. No...I couldn't live with that. So I decided on 2 miles...walk, run, crawl, whatever, just 2 miles of movement. So, out I went, the sun was OUT, there was NO AIR at all. Everything was stagnate and wet. Beads of sweat formed, pooled, dripped but did not evaporate to cool me. I felt slow and weak, runkeeper broke into my music and said 13:56 minute/mile. Really? Wow, it felt much slower, more like walking with style...lol.

As I neared the end of my sweat-fest I noticed the sun disappearing...



Dark clouds were rolling in, the temp quickly dropped about 10 degrees, and the wind picked up. I wish I could say that helped, but by that time - I was about spent. I had less than half a mile to go and I could hear thunder now. Eekk! I gotta get movin'! Finally 2 miles, I bolted back to the house, about 10 minutes later. The storm began...shwoo. I just made it! It was a doosie too. Lost of lightening, thunder, rain pouring down in torrents, tornado watch...CRAZY. Just look...



That big green dot is me.
It rained for about 2 hours then I decided it was safe to head out to the store and grab a few groceries. When I came out of the store again, I was pleasantly surprised by a tiny rainbow trying to form.
Can you see it?



Today's Crazy Training:
Time: 29:09 minutes
Distance: 2.10
Pace: 13:53

4 day weekend re-cap...

Yeah, I was gone for a bit. I had four long luxurious days off from work! I got my runs in as planned all week. I even did a 3 miler on Thursday that was run at a 12min/mile pace.
Before I knew it Sunday was upon me, time for another long run. I chose the White Pines Trail again. The plan 4 miles up 4 miles back for a nice even 8. and if I felt I could, I'd push it to 4.5 and get a 9-er in.

Since my 3 mile runs are now poppin' up to a 12 min/mile pace I knew I'd have to start holding back on my long runs. The first mile was kinda crazy as I found my groove...10 min/mile, slow down 15:30...oops speed up. I finally settled in at 13:50 to 14:00min/mile...good enough. I ran...and ran....and ran. I felt light and full of energy.I went over the overpass again...and kept going.


Each time I do a long run I get a little further down the trail and see something new. Sunday it was this.



So far this trail takes me over a river, over a highway, and under a road. Never a dull moment. On the way back I actually lost track of the miles... I lost a whole mile deep in thought...forgot I was even running..lol. When I got back to the car I checked runkeeper 9.03miles...FREAKIN AWESOME!! That's 2 hours of straight running Uh-mazing.
I spent the rest of the day chillin' at the beach and swimming.

Sunday Long Run:
Time: 02:05:56
Distance: 9.03 miles
Pace: 13:58