Back to Life... Back to Reality ...

Monday is always better when it's on a Tuesday, but I'm going to be off a day the entire week.
The weekend was great, I'm not going to bother you with a day by day account, but it was full of:
Swimming!Playing at the park.

Running, BBQ, shopping, and more eating.

I like to be home as little as possible during the weekends. Well I guess that holds true for the weekdays too. The kids hate being couped up in the house all day and so do I.

I got in a great long run on Saturday morning: 14 miles, avg pace 9:17, and my last 6 miles were my fastest. Yesterday was a 7 mile easy run, but it did not feel easy, it was soooooo hot!
I've done a good job of following my training plan and I do enjoy knowing what I'm going to run each day. On the strength front, I did well. I got in 3 videos. I want to start using heavier weights, right now, I use 5 lb weights, 10 lbs for some exercises. I would like to use 10 lbs for all of the exercises.

Did you all have a great weekend? What was the highlight?
I had a great weekend, I wanted to go out of town, but it didn't happen. We still managed to do a lot and have a good time. Our neighbors had a BBQ that was really fun and swimming was a blast.

It's Friday Friday Friday!!!

Rants and Fav's:

Rant: When people find out you run, their first response... I hate running...

Fav: BBQ season is officially in full swing!

Rant: House flies... in the summer one fly's in the minute we open the door... annoying little buggers!

Fav: The pool is open!

Rant: The older kids that don't pay attention and jump on your little kid

Fav: 4 day weekends with these guys:
Bonus fav: We have plans every weekend from now until the 2nd week of July! That could become rant...

Have a great weekend!

Sleep Deprived

As I lay awake at 2 a.m. last night, I read about reasons I have been unable to sleep.
I am convinced I have Restless Leg Syndrome, the symptoms are me to a 'T' I have had all of the symptoms for as long as I can remember, even as a child. One thing I know about it is that antihistamines can make it worse. Antihistamines as in benadryl or the main ingrediant in all of the "PM" medications. I used to take a benadryl to help me sleep but it made the RLS so much worse. I have been wondering why it's been bothering me so much these past few days and I thought it was soreness from running. As I was reading last night, I read one of the most common causes is iron deficiency. I've never been deficient in iron, however, I know that running can cause iron deficiency, something about the repetitive foot strikes doing something to the blood that lowers iron? And, TMI, it's that time of the month, and I've only had that time of the month twice (being pregnant and than nursing for 9 months.) I eat a lot of spinach which I know is high in iron, but very little meat like 3 oz 3-4 times a week in the form of chicken. I don't eat fortified bread, and I know cereal usually has added iron, but I haven't eaten cereal in a long time. I don't actually know if my iron is low, but it makes a lot of sense to me. I need to start taking a daily vitamin.

Have any of you ever dealt with low iron?

When your pregnant they test your iron levels quite often, and I was never too low, though often on the lower side. I was also diligent about taking my prenatals with extra iron, which obviously I don't do now.
My husband told me to eat a steak. I think that's code for he wants steak.

Yesterday's workout was 5 miles at easy pace: 9:40, which is a little too easy, I think I am going to up it a bit and the ab video.

My weekend starts tomorrow! So TGITH!!!

May you all have sweet dreams!

Wednesday Eats

When your dinner looks like this, how can it not be a good day?

Yesterday's workout per schedule speedwork, 7 miles with 4 x 1600 @ 7:51 w/ 800m jogs.
I iced my hamstrings afterward, I think it helped. My legs are still sore (mostly my hamstrings) I know it's because I'm lazy and don't do anything after runs, ie... stretch, ice, eat... That all changes now.
Thank you for the comments and suggestions... I think I need to get more protein in my diet and I know I have start rolling and icing. I think I'm going to get the stick... I tried it at the running store and really liked it. It's pricey, but hopefully, it will be worth it.

Lets talk about schedules, not running ones, daily ones...
Do you follow one?
I do, to a T.
I have to, with two little kids, it's the only way I can get anything done, and it helps them because they get used to routine.
The question I get most from friends, family, strangers, bloggers, etc... is how I find the time to workout.
My daily (weekday) schedule looks a little like this:
Wake up
Give Kids breakfast - Pick up house
Work on the computer for an hour or two (the kids are good in the morning and content playing)
Run errands
Eat lunch
Down time for kids (I do a little more work)
nap time! (Workout time for me!)
More work
Cook dinner
Eat
Play
Kids sleep
Relax time for me and hubby = I read blogs
The weekends are totally different. I do my long run on Saturday morning, hubby stays with the kids. They meet me at the park, Baby Leila is ALWAYS dressed weird. I have to get in the habit of leaving her clothes picked out. Why is it that hubby can dress Adam no problem, but baby Leila always looks ready for Tacky Tuesday?
Do you guys follow a routine?
Do you like routine?

It's Tuesday...

My legs are SORE, like keeps me up at night, achy, can't get up if I'm squatting down sore. I barely ran last week and they've been like this for like 2 weeks. I need a foam roller or the stick. I want the stick but it's like 35.00, that's a lot of money! My legs are actually more achy than sore, as soon as I'm moving around they are fine, and I don't feel it when I'm running, but when I'm laying down trying to sleep they feel like they need to be stretched 10 feet.

I ran 5 miles at 9:50 pace yesterday, that's what the plan called for. It was weird because I usually run at almost the same pace every run and it's usually around 8:30 - 9:00 so this seemed slow, but I varied the incline from 2.5% - 3.0% and it was a really easy run. I guess that's why they call them easy runs! I didn't even feel like I'd run afterward. I also did Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 level 4, my arms, shoulders, and back are already sore.
Holding this one is a good workout too.


Yesterday's lunch was left-over pasta salad over spinach, now that it's warm out you will start to notice I eat pasta salad almost everyday.

Here is Adam's breakfast! Whole wheat bagel with light cream cheese, grapes, and milk.
I haven't had breakfast yet, but it will probably be the rest of his bagel and a banana.


Tangent Time:
1. I am a terrible sleeper, no matter what it takes me like an hour to fall asleep. I always wake up multiple times throughout the night and I move around a lot. Oh, and I'm also told I grind my teeth. I'm pretty sure I have restless leg syndrome. I think I'm going to try those melatonin pills to see if they help, it's getting out of hand.
2. Even though I don't get quality sleep, for some reason I am always hyper. I think maybe I just have way too much energy because I'm very rarely tired, except when I first wake up in the morning.
3. I don't know anyone in real life that likes running. It really really sucks! I talk to my husband incessantly about it, but he has to listen. No one else cares, they don't know how many miles a 5k is, they could care less about the difference between a 10 min and 8 min mile, and whether I run 10 miles or 15 it's still crazy. Thankfully, I talk to myself more than anyone and I do care about running, so I love listening to me!

Are your legs always a little bit achy?
How do you sleep? Have you tried melatonin?

Workout Recap

I had planned to take it easy this last week, I think I took it a little too easy...
Monday - 4.25 miles @ 8:24 pace, 30 day Shred level 3
Tuesday - 1.6 miles @ 8:45 (I just wasn't feeling it), 30 day shred level 3
Wednesday - 5.25 miles @ 8:45, ab video
Thursday - Nothing, Nada, Zilch
Friday - 1.5 miles @ 8:30
Saturday - 5k 24:12

Total miles = 15.5

I'm glad I did the 5k on Saturday, I'm going to use that to base my training paces for the next couple of months. Since I'm going to be doing my first marathon Oct. 30, I've decided to start "officially" training for it Aug 1. I have decided on another 5k July 30th to base my marathon training off of. That means I have 10 weeks to my next 5k. I used smart coach to make myself a 10 week training plan to the next 5k. I've never really followed a training plan, so I'm excited to see how it goes! I always follow a pattern each week mon = easy, tues = speed, sat = long run etc... but I do however many miles I feel like doing at a pace I'm feeling for that day. So, this time I'm going to try to follow it as closely as possible and see how I like it!
I also think having a plan will help hold me accountable, I have a busy summer and I don't want my running to get pushed to the side. If I've got the miles already on my calender, I think I'll be more likely to stick to it.

Goals for this week:
Follow the running plan
3 strength workouts
2 ab
and to buy a foam roller, or the stick, my legs have been so achy!

Insta-PR and Weekend Fun

On Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to run my first 5k! I was excited because I never really try to run fast, I'm usually pacing myself. The race was by a beautiful lake about 15 min from my house. Here are the results:

7

1274

LISA HARTLEY

ACWORTH

GA

F

27

24:13.24

24:12.39

7:48

5/34

7/167

F1829

Chip time was 24:12:39/Pace 7:48
7/167 Females

I'm happy with the results and glad I have a benchmark time to base my training off of.
After the 5k, I ran with my son for the kids fun run.
He had a blast

After, we headed to the farmer's market and for the first time this season got Peaches!
I love peaches. We headed home, put the kids for naps, I got in two episodes of Criminal Minds!
For some reason we took Adam to go ride go-karts on the hottest day of the year. It was fun waiting inline for an hour with a sweaty, bored baby.


It's obvious my husband was having wayyyyy more fun than Adam! We came home watched the Yankees finally win and went to sleep way later than we should have.

Sunday funday started with lots and lots of cleaning and preparing lunch, we had friends coming at noon. I don't have any pictures but they have two of the most adorable girls almost the same age as our kids. It's a blast watching them all play, and they were all good! I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of lunch! I made mozzarella, tomato, basil pesto paninis, whole wheat pasta salad with tomato, feta, black olives, red and green bell pepper, and cucumber. I even made the red wine vinaigrette, and we had fruit salad. Soooo yummy, even the kids ate it.
After we watched the Yankees win again, wooo hooo, took naps, washed cars, played in pools and went to dinner to eat the largest amount of seafood I've ever seen!


That baby splashed for an hour straight! And, ummm, do you see that car?!?! Yep, it was actually that dirty.


Ok, so that seafood platter, was half-gone when I decided to finally snap a pic. There was also a plate literally piled a foot high with fried flounder. Oh and the bread was Hawaiian sweet bread filled with a sweet cream cheese, it weighed like 2 pounds. The salad dressing was so good I took some home. That cake needs no description... it was by far the best piece of cake I've ever eaten and the biggest! It was Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse.

Obviously the weekend ended on a good note.

I hope everyone had a Spectacular weekend...
Tell me, what did you do???