Weekend Update: First Trail Run and a 50 Mile Bike Ride

Friday I spent the day relaxing with my babies... after I got in a great workout that morning:

45 min on the bag kickboxing

Jillian's 30 day shred week 1

Jillian's ripped in 30 week 1

total cals 1,000!

 

got in some good snuggle time with my two boys

 

 

 

and girlie tv with my girls

 

Max wants to be like his big sissy

 

Max was sleeping in my lap ..

 

then his big brother came to nap with him and relax

 

Max and Maddie hanging out

 

Max laying on Maddie to play with Hank's tail

 

 

Friday night I went to a friends for wine night, and I took ZERO pics, I know, horrible blogger right here... it was fun, and I love getting to try new wines! We have them from time to time and they are themed by location, this wine night was Texas wines, I brought my Grape Creek Merlot and got to try a few other good Texas wines that I will be adding to my rotations in the hill country! :)

 

 

Saturday morning I got in Jillian's 30 day shred week 1 again AND it was my first trail run, I signed up for the 5k, and I am glad I did... it was hot, and the trails were sandy in parts and lots of roots to try and trip you in others, as well as good hills which are super exhausting while running... there was a girl who was ahead of me for most of the race, and I thought to myself the whole time, I am in better looking shape than her, she CAN NOT beat me!!! So I passed her twice and then she passed me again, but in the end, with about 3/4 of a mile left I passed her a third time and never saw her again... I didnt stop to walk, but it was a slower race for me because of the trails, I ALMOST face planted twice, but kept my forward running momentum going and didnt fall...

 

I finished early enough to get a picture of Lauren crossing the finish line:

 

 

my Runkeeper time... official time was similar 39:50

 

me and my girls after finishing, Christina did the 10k trail race and PR'd it in under an hour, I was so excited for her! AND this was Lauren's first 5k to complete, with it being my first trail run it was a day of PR's for us ladies! :)

 

I should have gotten a close up of the medal, it was awesome with a crawfish on it and all!!

 

and the race finished with a pound of crawfish and a beer, a pound of crawfish to a cajun is a tease, a mean mean tease!!!! but it was yummy!

 

 

that night I went to my friend Christy's house after the race and we did a low key dinner in which I could wear sweats, it was wonderful!  And again I failed at the pictures!

 

 

Sunday morning came early at 6am to get up and drive an hour for my last MS 150 training ride, the Gran Fondo ride- we had planned to do the 70 mile route, but my friend was running late, and it was SUPER windy so we did the 50 mile route.

 

 

The start kicked off at 7:30am- its a little hard to see, but there are bikers lined up in droves on the horizon in this pic...

 

 

registration and packet pick up

 

pre-race pic

 

at the turn around there was a field of Bluebonnets... so we took pics! GEAUX TIGERS!

 

Suzy and me with the bluebonnets!

 

There was some form of music at each rest stop, and those were every 10-15 miles along the route...

 

 

we finished at the Houston Oaks Country club and it was set up so nicely, I thought it was set up for a wedding, but it was for US! We got burritos and devored them quickly... we were hungry- total bike time 3 1/2 hours, total time since arrival 5 hours- we took our time at the rest stops and I got there about 45 min before Suzy which added to my time as well... total calories 3000!!!! according to my Polar!

 

The wind was BAD, super strong and not fun, the hills and elevation climb were rough, but not horrible- the toughest thing was fighting the wind!

 

Runkeeper said it was my best elevation climb to date!

 

 

 

after the race I went home got in an ice bath for my legs and took a nap, after I woke up, this little guy wanted a nap himself... who can say no to that???

 

 

 

Hope everyone else had a fabulous weekend as well!

30 days with Jillian challenge- April accountability needed!!!

I need accountability... I havent been off to a good start here. I did Jillian Tuesday so far and thats it. I have ALWAYS struggled with getting in workouts after work, AND the hubs isnt even here this week, NOT good.

Today is the 5th day this month, I am 1 out of 4 for the first 4, this is my commitment to myself and to you all that I WILL do this the rest of this month, every day from now on EXCEPT April 20-21 which I am biking 150 miles to raise money for multiple sclerosis research... that will be enough for those two days.

I will try to post when I get my workouts in... and if I dont post every day, I will catch up the days I missed, especially since I usually dont post on weekends, part of Mama's #bepresent idea...

Today's goal since its my Friday off is kickboxing on my bag and then TWO Jillian videos to make up for this crappy week... 30DS and RI30!!

I also got a groupon for 10 sessions of hot yoga!!! I had one of my co-workers get it too so we are going to go after work 10 times in April/May! I am excited to try it, and a little scared!

Tomorrow is my 5k with crawfish at the finish line- talk about good encouragement to finish! I am going to run it hard and fast and try for another PR! My last one was crazy fast, but I wonder if the course was really 3.1 miles... it was so fast!!! This run tomorrow will be a true testament if I have shaved that much time off my run... my knee has been a little rough, I did spin twice this week and then just did the elliptical yesterday because of it. I need to take it easy today and hopefully it will be good.

Sunday morning is a 70 mile bike ride, my LONGEST training ride yet, but I need to get it in before the big ride in TWO WEEKS!!!!! I can not believe I am biking 150 miles in two weeks, I  know its for a good cause, but I dont think I will be doing this again, unless its for a half ironman or something.. my cousin and I have been throwing around that idea and a marathon idea... I want to do my half this fall and we were thinking full in Feb in Nola depending on how my half goes I MAY be up to try it, I can always run/walk the thing!! It would be cool to get one in before 30.. even though my goal was a half, why not blow it out of the water with a WHOLE!?? We will see...

I enjoy running, biking, only for a tri I think, not just to bike, spin is fun, but super long rides just arent... my bum isnt made for those tiny seats!!!

Alphabet Dating Link Up: B: BEACH!

I love the beach... I always have... so about two years ago, on our one year anniversary my hubs (then boyfriend) surprised me with a day trip to Galveston!

We had been once before to spend the day relaxing and fishing and had a blast:

 

...so he knew it would be a good idea for an anniversary date!

 

 

 

It was a windy day.... to say the least... so we didnt spend much time laying out... because we were getting semi sand blasted as you can see from our towels!!

 

 

 

so we made sand castles...

 

 

and wrote sweet nothings in the sand...

 

 

and he had packed a picnic lunch for us!!! which was perfect and really yummy!!!

 

 

we attracted alot of seagulls with the food, even though we werent sharing, they do look pretty all lined up in a row!

 

 

happy and enjoying our food before heading back out to the  waves!

 

I have a very thoughtful sweet man and know how lucky I am!!! ...and I do love being this close to a beach!!! :)

 

Weigh In and Workouts Wednesday

I got on the scale this morning... I am up three pounds from the end of the Advocare cleanse, but down a pound from last week. I feel so frustrated because its so hard for me to get BOTH my eating and my working out on track. I did really well on that cleanse, and I know if I can just get back to clean eating I will be sucessful, but for some reason I struggle. Do I want myself to fail? ...sometimes I wonder.

I had a STELLAR week mileage wise last week... 46 total miles of running and biking and 7 workouts! My eating however, was only so-so. Easter weekend my eating was crappy. I get so close to where I want to be and then I go to treat myself and over indulge. This is something I know I am going to struggle with my whole life, no one in my family is fit/thin that is over the age of 30... I want to be the first, I want to turn 30 knowing I did everything I could this year to make my 30's and beyond great healthy years... why is this so hard to put into place?

I know what I have to do to suceed because I have done it before, cut back on carbs, and meal prep at the begining of the week so I am not in a bind and stuck eating crap out. Let's face it, even when you eat healthy out, they add butter/salt to what you order grilled to make it taste good... so its still usually not healthy.

I need accountability and I appreciate all the support I get here and know I can do this, I need to JUST DO IT as Nike would say...

Workout results:
Wed- run  elliptical
Thurs-dance cardio class spin
Friday- bike/spin ran
Saturday- Crescent City Classic 10k new 10k PR!
Sunday- REST
Monday- spin

...I left off Tuesday for some reason... but I did 30 Day Shred last night because I had to work through lunch yesterday


Workout Plan:
Wed spin/ RI30
Thurs run/ 30DS
Fri bike/ RI30
Sat Muddy Trails 5K/ 30DS
Sun Gran Fondo Texas bike ride/ 30DS
Mon spin/ RI30 wk 2
Tues run/ 30DS wk 2

I want to do Jillian each night when I get home and handle cardio at lunch. Thats the plan.

I also want to start eating clean again, with one cheat meal a week.

30 Days with Jillian!!!

This month I am doing the 30 Day Shred and Ripped in 30... its time to build muscle.

I have been doing ALOT of cardio and I want to tone it all up. I was supposed to start with the shred last night, but since I am not feeling well that didnt happen, but since I did spin at lunch- it can be one of my cardio days this week. Today starts the shred, and I may do RI30 too, just to make up for yesterday, we will see how I am feeling, I am not really feeling better today and I went to bed at 8:30 last night. I am hoping its allergies, but who knows!?

Workouts:
Yesterday: 30 min spin - 10 miles
Today: 30 min spin and 30DS


I also need to start planning my Irleand trip, I keep thinking more and more I want to do my first half there, so we will probably plan to go mid September- I cant wait! In the meantime the hubs wants me to be thinking about a weekend get a way for April 13-14 to celebrate our one year anniversary- he will be working on our actual anniversary weekend and the weekend before that is the MS150 (hence the two days of spin in a row).

Sorry for the lack of pics today, I feel like crap, and just dont have alot of effort to give today, plus my big man is sick. He has some type of urinary infection- he got it a year ago and we gave him a lot of wet food and he got better and we took him to the vet, but I cant remember what they did for it, I noticed this morning, so the hubs is calling the vet to see what they gave him last time to see if we can get it over the phone this time, otherwise I am going to have to take off work to take him in... hopefully the wet food helps again, and it goes away and doesnt come back in another year! I hate seeing him sick more than I hate being sick myself!

I mean how adorable is he???

Easter Weekend and Crescent City Classic 10K PR Update

I wanted to share some pictures from our visit to the trampoline park from last Monday too, some of them came out really good.. my sister is really good at posing for these, I was struggling, LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday morning we drove down and hung out with everyone, my sister and I went for a 3 mile run/walk out to the lake to watch the boats and then went to a burger place called "Juicy Lucy" with my friend Tara and her bf, they have stuffed burgers, and I was trying to be good, so I got a bunless stuffed turkey burger (it was stuff with cheese and BBQ sauce) and sweet potato fries (had to carbo load for the 10k) - the burger was ok- I havent had a turkey burger in forever and personally prefer venison when it comes to healthy burgers, but oh well, next time I am going all out with the beef there, the "burger of the day" was stuffed with mac and cheese- next time its on! :)

 

 

Saturday morning was the Crescent City Classic and my second 10k, so I did the same thing I did the morning of my last 10K - 1 egg, 1 egg white, and a banana, and off to the race we went, my sister brought her bike so she could bike along with us- she wasnt prepared to run a 10k but still wanted to come, and she figured she could get pics this way, it was kind of fun having to keep an eye out for her and having paparatzi following me around the whole run...

 

My cousin and I started the race together, he was in group E and I was group F, but we ended up lining up at the end of group D- still not sure if that was the best idea, but we did it anyway... then we didnt start til 15 min late... my HR was already 125 bpm because I was so nervous/excited! (my resting is usually around 70)

 

we stayed together for the first 5-10 minutes, but we were running at a 7-8 min mile pace and I couldnt keep that up, so I slowed down and let him go on ahead of me... he wanted a 10 min mile finish and I wanted to beat my 10k time of 1:12:50something, but I knew that was too fast, guess thats what we get for starting with a faster group!

 

 

yea thats me heel striking like a beast, I really need to work on that!

 

my sister pretty much stayed with me the whole race, off and on, she had trouble keeping up because the sidewalks were crazy busy and there were over 17,000 people running this thing...



 

in this picture I am pointing out the girl dressed like the energizer bunny, she was with a group ahead of me, but I caught up with her and stayed with her most of the race, I felt pretty good that I was running the same pace as the energizer bunny girl!

 

more heel striking... haha

 

I am almost at the finish, I wanted to DIE, I had been going strong around a 10 min mile pace the first 3 miles and then at mile 3 I got a cramp in my right butt/hip/upper thigh that did NOT go away the rest of the race, my knee was doing great, but this cramp was KILLING me... I wanted to give up and walk so many times that last mile, but I didnt because I knew I was on pace to PR this bad boy, 3 weeks after my first 10k and I wanted it SO bad, my Iphone music was on lame songs, my power songs never really came this run, but about 5.5 miles in there was a band playing "Eye of the Tiger" not only does this song make me think of LSU, its also known for the Rocky movies... it was JUST what I needed to power through... there was no sprint/running quickly at the end of this race for me, but I did pick up my pace a bit to finish, and I PR'd!!!!!

 

 

SUPER crowded at the finish line! but its BEHIND me!!!

 

 

my Runkeeper had me at 6.45, not sure why, but my cousins Map My Run app said 6.47 on his too... I still cant believe I shaved 3 mins off in 3 weeks, and I wasnt really run training that hard either!!! 

 

me and my cousin with our finisher medals

 

my bro came out to the finish... and my sister/paparatzi with her bike!

 

my official results! I finished in the top third of all the women that ran! pretty proud of that! loved this race and cant wait to do it again next year!

 

 

After the race it was back to my Aunts for Easter celebration - in S La, this means crawfish boil! :)

 

My cousins friends came to help cook and eat the crawfish!

 

 

girls cousin pic

 

 

eatin crawfish

 

 

sisters pic, we did NOT coordinate outfits, great minds just think alike! :)

 

more food....

 

 

March 31 is my cousins birthday, so we had cake.... and her fav food is crawfish, so they were on the cake... it was REALLY good!

 

 

 

then my bro sis and I decided it would be fun to be tourists in the city I was born and raised, so we took the ferry to the West bank and back, and got great pics of downtown and the bridge..

 

 

this pic was taken right before my brother was kicked off the ferry, apparantly they frown on standing on the rail, lol... no Titanic moments allowed..

 

 

and since they made me run by Cafe Du Monde during the 10k....

We went and indulged, yes beignets are technically fried bread, but it was Easter Eve... and they smelled SO good earlier!!!!

 

 

then Sunday we drove back, went to church with my mom in laffy and headed back to Texas, Max enjoyed napping on his uncle most of the trip back..