Weekend Wrap Up!

After a full week of school with students, I was ready for the weekend!
You know, I forgot what kid farts smell like, but after this week, I remember...
Let's just say now that I am back at work, I am sooooo thankful for weekends!

Something astounding happened on Friday afternoon, and I really need you to brace yourself for this one. I mowed the lawn! We were due. For some reason, when I had to go back to work, I just stopped mowing the lawn. I chose laying on the couch and sleep over household chores.

That evening, Paul and I chilled on the back porch. We drank (well I drank) and played games. Then Paul grilled us some turkey burgers.

We got the fire pit going. Usually we eat dinner and watch Jeopardy, but that night, we watched the fire.

The entire time, the cats stared at us through the back windows. The looks on their faces progressed from extremely indignant to royally pissed that we would be outside without them. They remember the days they used to be allowed to frolic in the backyard. But then Jelly ran up the neighbor's tree and got stuck, so that put and end to that!

It was great to sleep in until 9 and wake up with Christmas cuddled in my arms. I guess he forgot about last night and was ready to forgive me.

The weather was gorgeous, so around 11, I set out for a 12 miler. I had a great run and felt like I was truly in long run territory!

That afternoon, we went to my cousin's BBQ and hung with family. We had a great time and I got to satiate my RUNGER with some awesome food. Oh, the theme was AMERICA so everyone was decked out in red, white and blue. 

They're getting married! It was an "I Do BBQ"!

Kristy has been a part of our family for so long, I already consider her a cousin!

Me and my Auntie Eileen. 

I am often compared to her, and I consider it a huge compliment!

My Momma and Daddio!

That's the shirt I got him for our anniversary!

They even had a big screen up so everyone could watch the Little League World Series. Our very own REDLAND was competing and WON the U.S. Championship! I don't follow baseball, let alone little league, but that is cool that a team from such a small town in Central PA ended up winning the whole thing! Oh, and one of my former students was on the team! SO COOL!

I stayed up really late so I had to force myself to get out of bed around 9am. I didn't want to sleep too late and then not be able to go to bed at a decent time. My workout was sort of lazy- I was very tired. I spent most of the day just lounging around. Hey, that's what some Sundays are for, right!?

I started a puzzle and worked diligently while researching Bernie Sanders. I had taken one of those "Which presidential candidate do you side with?" quizzes and it turns out that I side with Bernie above and beyond the other candidates. Yet I didn't know anything about him or his campaign, so I watched about a dozen videos online and read some articles. I'm starting to feel the Bern...

Did you watch the Little League World Series?

Do you ever take the "I side with" quizzes? I think it is interesting to not only see your results, but just taking the quiz forces you to think about what issues are important you you.

12 miles! (I missed that LONG run feeling!)

I ran 12 miles yesterday! This was the longest I have run in over a year, if you can believe that! I don't know where to start, so I'll start right at the very beginning. (It's a very good place to start!)

The weather was gorgeous. It was warm and sunny but not too hot. It was my first weekend after 5 days teaching and I was really enjoying the freedom! I loaded up my MP3 player with pod casts (thankfully it decided to work), slapped on my visor, and hit the streets! 

(Oh, many of you asked how I manage to run with diarrhea. Well, there are two port o johns in my neighborhood as well as one in a nearby park. During this particular run, there would be times I would be a little farther from a toilet than I would like, but I brought some TP with me in case I had an emergency and needed to duck into some trees! Nothing was going to keep my from my long run!)

I mapped out my route beforehand so that I wouldn't have to look down at my Garmin. I didn't want to worry about my pace. I just wanted to get my miles done and check my pace after. Well, I did end up looking at my pace around Mile 9 and it was hovering around an 8:30, so I could not complain about that. 

Before I hit the road, I thought about doing 11 or 12 miles. 11 would have been fine, but 12 just seemed way cooler. I would feel like I really did a long run. I wanted to have that tired, achy RUNGRY feeling that I missed so much! I thought 12 miles would give that to me, so that was my goal!

The run itself actually went great! I was in podcast land for most of it, so that made the time go fast. When I was done, I yipped out loud: "12 miles!" No one heard, but it was fun to say! I cooled down with a walk and then spent the next half hour stretching. I needed it!

Oh, I also got to cash in on my RUNGRY feeling because we went to a picnic that afternoon. It is so fun stuffing your face after a long run- especially with things like chicken, ribs, macaroni salad, and spinach dip!

My half marathon isn't until December, and I really don't have any reason to be running more than 12 miles right now, so I think maybe if I stay healthy, I will do some sort of rotation on the weekends where I alternate between 10 and 12 miles, just so I keep a nice long run base going. It will also help me mentally. I mean, I am actually surprised how quickly I was able to build my mileage. Just a month ago I was complaining that running 5 miles was a pain. But once I decided to just suck it up and run more often and get more miles in, it became a lot easier mentally to get these long runs- and even the short runs- done. Running is soooooo mental. It's crazy how it works.

How was your long run this weekend?
What's your favorite type of food to eat when you're RUNGRY?

Weekly Workout Recap

I feel like I had a great week of workouts!

32 miles

3 lifting sessions

1 long, hilly run

2 speedy sessions!

My hip pain is totally gone.

My knee/IT band pain... I'm not letting it hold me back. I am just doing

what I want to do and it is not making it better or worse.

9 Miler w/ my Daddio!

You can read more about this fun adventure here.

3 miler around my neighborhood. My legs were surprisingly fresh, so I continued to push throughout the run until my last 1/3 mile was under my 5k race pace!

Mile 1- 8:17

Mile 2- 7:58

Mile 3- 7:21

I am counting this as my speed work for the week. Do you think it is okay to count speedy runs as your speed work? I just get so anxious anticipating speed work that sometimes mid run I will decide to go faster and faster so that I could count it as speed!

Then I went home and lifted BACK.

Band Asst. Wide Grip Pull Ups- Reps: 8, 6, 7 6, 7

Dumbbell Row- 4x10x25lb

Bicycle Crunches- 4x40

Band Asst. Neutral Grip Pull Ups- Reps: 8, 8, 7, 7

Stability Ball Pass- 4x8

Bicep Curls- 4x10x15lb

Stretching/Rolling

It was the first day of school so I figured the best way to prepare was to run 7 neighborhood miles! I felt like I was going fast but my paces were actually kind of slow! Maybe from the speed work yesterday? Who knows? Sometimes I think it is useless to try to figure out my body!

5 neighborhood miles.

3 neighborhood miles, then chest @ home.

Warm Up: Stretching, chest press, shoulder press, rotator cuff

Chest Press- 4x10x25lb

Bicycles- 4x40

Push Ups- 4x40

Shoulder Press- 4x10x20lb

Stability Ball Pass- 4x8

Tricep Dips- 4x15

Stretching

Speed work!

I know I said Sunday counted as my speed work but I sort of forgot about it!

1/2 mile warm up

800x5 (with 400 recovery in between)

1 mile cool down

800s were anywhere between a 6:50-7:40.

I was having trouble keeping them consistent. 7:20 was my goal but like I said I wasn't very good at that!

Back @ Home

Warm Up: stretching, asst. pull ups, shoulder pres, row, rotator cuff

Band asst. wide grip pull ups- 5x6

Rows- 4x10x25lb

Bicycles- 4x40

Band asst. neutral grip pull ups- 4x6

Bicep Curls- 3x10x15lb

Stability Ball Pass- 4x8

I hope you had great workouts this week too!

Do you ever decide mid run to count something as speed?

Randomy Randomness about the first week of school!

Warning! Poop talk at the end!!!! (Am I the only blog that gives poop talk warnings? YOU'RE WELCOME!!!)

1.    Well, I survived my first week of school! I know I still have to get through today, but I am assuming I will. The first two days were great because I had mostly third and fourth graders. They’re the “older” kids and they’re my jam.It’s no secret that I find kindergarten and first grade to be… CHALLENGING. Kindergarten and first grade teachers are saints. I would not be able to do it all day. But I am glad there are special people in this world who can do it all day!

2. The beginning of the school year means I have to put on my mean, strict, teacher face for at least the first several weeks. It is hard because you have to set the tone of the year and be on top of everything at first. But it pays off. A few weeks of being hyper vigilant in the classroom management department pays off and then I will be able to relax a bit more. Teachers, you  know what I am talking about!

Source

3.    I am extremely anal retentive during the school year. I lay out all of my work clothes and workout clothes on Sunday. I also pack all of my lunches for the week. I just feel like I am in control more when I have all that stuff taken care of. Plus I hate packing lunches, so if I just pack five at a time BOOM I am done!

4.    One thing I am not used to is getting up when it is still dark out. It’s so depressing. Is there anywhere in the world I could move where it is bright and sunny out from 5:00am-8:00pm… all year long? When it is dark and gloomy in the morning, a good podcast can cheer me up. Rob Has A Podcast (Survivor and Big Brother Coverage) is my favorite thing to listen to in the morning. It's "homey" to me, if you catch my drift.

5. I have been doing surprisingly well in the sleep department, thanks to my "happy pills". They are actually pills that help me sleep, but getting sleep makes me happy, so I call them "happy pills". It's a total of 6mg melatonin and 25mg diphenhydramine. No sleepless nights tossing and turning, worrying about school.

6. Obviously my fall schedule is much busier than in the summer, but it is not too bad. Right now I don't have many training clients, so my only obligations outside of my full time job teaching is piano lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Those are long days- I teach until 7:00pm both nights. But the bright side is Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are wide open. This Wednesday Paul and I went fishing after work! It was fun. It felt like summer again.

7. I. still. have. diarrhea. I am not "going" as many times per day as I was a month ago... but I am still going a couple times, and I have not had solid stool in over a month! I am taking a probiotic but it doesn't seem to help. I am calling the doctor back because having diarrhea is just not working for me anymore. For one, I don't want it to turn out to be something bad that is wrong with me that I am neglecting. And second, it is sort of hard to teach all day long when you are worried about going to the bathroom! I can't be like, "Excuse me kiddos, I need to go blow up the bathroom right now, I'll be back in a few minutes..." 

Teachers, how was your first week back?
Tell me something random!

A recipe I TOTALLY forgot about!

I don't normally post recipes on my blog. I used to, because that is what I thought all bloggers do. I was trying to fit in. Then one day I was like, "I don't want to fit in!", and I deleted my recipe tab at the top of my page.

HOWEVER, I am sharing a recipe with you today!

WARNING: I did not create this recipe! It is directly from Iowa Girl Eats. I found it when I was randomly googling recipes about two years ago.

A RECIPE I totally forgot about!

While grocery shopping the other day, I realized it has been way too long since I made this Healthy Chicken Salad. I found the recipe years ago @ Iowa Girl Eats. The only things I do different from the original recipe is I don't measure anything and just add to taste. Also, I don't put in onions because Paul is not a fan. 

This chicken salad is packed with protein from not only the chicken but the Greek yogurt. It tastes good on a sandwich, in a wrap, as a dip, and even just in a bowl all on it's own. I urge you to try it out!

Ingredients: plain Greek yogurt, chopped celery, sliced onions, dried cranberries, lemon juice, salt, pepper, curry powder

And of course... CHICKEN!

You don't have to grill it but that's what Paul did for me!

All you do is chop up the chicken, and mix it together with all the other ingredients in a big bowl. Refrigerate! I love recipes in which all you have to do is mix everything together and dump it in some Tupperware!

Like I said, you can eat this on a sandwich, as a dip with wheat thins, or even just by itself!

Have you ever tried this recipe or think you might?