Today was another one of those “I just don’t feel like running” days. I need to snap out of this funk. Yes I am pulling off my runs but I am ready to feel good again. Maybe I need a spa da. A good massage always helps! That or a swift kick in the rear!
I set out to do a 6 mile run at a long tempo pace. I put in my headphones to drown out gym noise and got to it. I was a half mile in when I had a Ipod snafu. My headphones started cutting in and out. Not awesome. This will be the third pair of SnugBudds that I have to return in a very short period of time. Ridiculous. Stopped and headed to my locker to make like Macgeiver and fix them. Thought about calling it quits and then reminded myself that AFC is in 4 weeks!
Pounded out 6.1 and ended up just a tad slower than goal with an average pace of 7:48. Maybe the funk is that it’s taking longer to build mileage up post injury. I am having to take my time since I switched to a minimalist shoe. It just feels more difficult.
I am icing and using compression sleeves to aid with recovery. I am looking forward to a solid long run this weekend. Running at sunrise is so serene and beautiful! I love ditching the music and listening to nature. Ahhhhhhhh, can’t wait!
Let’s dive right into Reality Tuesday starting with the Bachelorette
Short Version: Ashley goes on 4 hometown dates in the following order: Constantine, Ames, Ben,& JP. Constantine had a big fat greek party, Ames family (sister mostly) grilled her, Ben’s fam- well, not sure what happened because I fell asleep (not kiddin), JP’s fam loved Ash (I woke back up for this, shocker). They head back to LA and she sends Ames home.
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Before I get into the long version, did anyone notice that Ben got a hair cut sometime between his hometown date and the rose ceremony? It almost looked like a brunette version of my 1985 Ken doll. I’m serious, remember Barbie and the Rockers? Ken had that same hair-do!
Anyway…
We start with Ash arriving in Cumming, GA to meet Constantine’s family. He takes her to his restaurant, Giorgio’s Italian. A Greek running an Italian place…hmmmmm.
Photo Cred: BuddyTV
They make pizza, she does a little bit of waitressing and then they head to the patio to enjoy what looks like lunch. He tells her that she will meet his Mom, Dad and sister. They arrive at the house where they sit down to a Greek/Southern meal. His mom pulls Ash aside and talks to her about moving to Georgia. Ashley says she would relocate for love but it was obvious that the conversation was uncomfortable. Ashley is very easy to read!
They head back into the living room when the doorbell rings and in walks Constantine’s ENTIRE FAMILY! Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it. They were all there. They have a party and dance and celebrate.
Ashley feels she has grown closer to Constantine after this date.
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Next we see Ash arriving in PA to meet Ames family. They were super color coordinated. Coincidence?
It literally looked like the perfect fall day! Ames had a picnic ready and they chatted before meeting the fam. Ash met his Mom, Brother and Fam and Sister and fam. The whole crew was very educated and well spoken. Ames’ sister gave Ashley the one-over and grilled her about how she felt. Although Ashley was honest about how slow the relationship was going, it was clear she was uncomfortable and sis was all over it. They had dinner and Ash was on her way.
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Next she arrived in Sonoma for her hometown date with Ben
Photo Cred: Hollywood Gossip
They visited his winery and started to talk about how important it is to him to have his family like her…AND THEN I FELL ASLEEP ON THE COUCH!
GASP! Sorry guys!
Ben, sorry friend, you were boring enough to put me to sleep. Hope your family liked her.
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Thankfully I woke up in time to see Ash arrive in NY to meet JP’s family
Photo Cred: Wet Paint
Rain was in the forecast so he took Ash to a roller rink. They had a very sweet junior-highish date that ended with a couples skate. Collective: AWWWWW. They headed back to his casa where he introduced her to his Mom, Dad, Brother and brother’s girlfriend.
* DID ANYONE NOTICE THAT JP’S BRO LOOKS LIKE HE COULD BE ROBERT DE NIRO’S SON?
Jp’s Mom had a talk with Ash about his prior relationships and basically said she does not want to see her son hurt again. Ashley then says she is SMITTEN with JP. This must have eased mama’s mind because she busted out this photo of JP and embarrassed the hay out of him!
Photo Cred: She Knows Entertainment
Ashley then said her good-byes and headed back to LA.
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The guys all fly back to the pad for the Rose Ceremony. Ashley gives her usual speech and hands out roses to:
JP, Ben and Constantine
Ames is sent home. Poor guy, he looked so confused. It was clear that he was a little shocked and just didn’t know how to react. The good news for Ames? He is a contestant on the Bachelor Pad that airs on August 8th. Maybe he will head home with a hottie after all.
Soooo next week Ash and the 3 guys head to Fiji for a sweet looking vacay. A prior contestant returns (rumored to be Ryan) to try to win her affection back. Why do they do this every season? I have never seen it get down to the final 2 or 3 and the bachelor or bachelorette takes someone back. Have you? Maybe I am just not remembering right?
That’s it for this weeks recap of the bach. What are your thoughts? It seems so obvious that she is going to pick JP…so then maybe she will not?
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Ok BB fanatics let’s talk ggggaaaaammmmmeeeeee!
Last Thursday we saw Keith get evicted.
Photo Cred: Hollywood Gossip
He had it coming right? I mean the poor guy just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. I really think that if he would have laid low Porsche would have been the one walking out the door. Now she has the golden key (along with Danielle) and will make it into the top 10. I still don’t think I’m feeling her. She has an alliance with Brachel and I can see the two of them getting completely off the chain. If nothing else it will make for some super good drama, lol!
Jordan won HOH making her and Jeff safe for the week (I LOVE THEM) and she nominated Dominic and Adam for eviction.
Tomorrow we will see the POV comp, POV ceremony and REPLACEMENT nominations…what what? I really hope that Dom stays. I like him and his game play (so far) and think that if he makes it past the next few weeks he could be a strong contender to make it to the end!!
Who do you think is going home this week?
Is Adam’s alliance with the vets legit? (I still don’t think so)
How many times will we see Brachel fight? (ANNOYING!!!!!)
I really didn’t feel like running this morning. I tried to talk myself out of it at least 3 times. I was tired and just feeling blech from a serious lack of sleep on Sunday night. Somehow I made it out of bed and to the gym by 4:50.
I hopped on the TM, put it on a .5% incline and started my warm up. Around 1.25 miles I realized I never started my watch. Proof of total tiredness. Hey, I never claimed to be a genius prior to 5 am. I hit go and got into my speedwork.
I did 200m jogs between at a 7.0. Let me tell you, this WOKE MY BUTT UP! Half way through I actually started to feel good. Whhhhaaaaaaa????? I thought about doing additional repeats and then remembered I was tired and over it. Funny how that works.
Total mileage 5.5, total time 45 min.
Have you ever done speed work on a TM? I love it! It breaks up the monotony of running in place and has helped me to improve my race times.
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I have some serious madness happening in the office this morning. As soon as I get things under control I will post my Bach Review and BB update! Reality Tuesday people- Check it!
After yesterday’s mid-tempo pace run I figured I would go for a nice, slow recovery run this morning. By nice, I mean painfully difficult in my hilly hood.
I know that the hills are my friends, but this morning they felt like enemies. Every step felt so slow, almost as if I was moving backwards. I was so thankful when I hit the Park because I knew I would get a little bit of downhill!
Made it into downtown and enjoyed about 6 blocks of completely flat roadway. Recovery at its finest. Almost stopped here
and then I remembered I didn’t have money on me. Darn it. I am usually good for at least $2 in my hydration belt. Not this morning. Guess the big man upstairs wanted to remind me of my brutal dehydration headache from yesterday.
Started my climb back up to the park.
6th Street is a very long gradual climb. For those running AFC in August, this is the end of the race. Yeah, that’s how the race directors roll. It’s a good challenge!
I wish I took a better photo of this. My camera doesn’t do the beauty justice. Finished the second half of the climb and made it back to my home base. Total climb from downtown: 300 feet! Legs are trashed.
Finished with an average 8:30 pace. It was not an easy run. My legs were tired and heavy. I thoroughly enjoyed breaks at red lights that would usually make me batty. I gladly stopped and gave tourists directions to a local bistro (and considered joining them but then that money thing came into play). I even took a short cut to my finish to reduce my run by more than a mile. It was a battle but I conquered and made it to church without limping. If that isn’t a win I don’t know what it is.
It’s now chill time. I am rocking my Zensah sleeves watching the US take on Japan in WC Soccer. USA Baby!
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Anyone run today? Upcoming races?
Are you watching soccer? If not, you should be! Turn it on!
After putting in more than 9 hours at Disneyland yesterday I wasn’t sure that I would make it out of the door this morning. Total Mickey hangover.
I headed down to the Rock around 7:30 to meet up with the crew. Please do not enlarge this photo. I do not wear makeup when I run and I don’t want to scare ya. Seriously, you’ve been warned.
When I got there I learned that today was going to be a fast 5-miler. I really wanted to do more but my small world headache wasn’t having it. Laced up and we were off.
There was 3 of us leading the pack for the first 2 miles. It felt good to be pacing with the boys. They challenge me to push myself because they are so dang fast. After mile 2 my buddy Ryan pulled ahead, I kept about 20 seconds behind, and Daniel then paced about 60 seconds behind me. We hit the turn around on Harbor Island and I was steady at a 7:00 pace. Then I hit the headwind on the way back. It felt good but it also meant slowing down and I was ok with that. This is a training run, not a race, right?
Hit the overpass that brings us back home and tried to pick it up a bit. I finished in 37:xx and an average of a 7:27 pace.
As soon as I was done the headache came back. I immediately knew I was dehydrated. STUPID ME! Argh. Once I get to this point it’s too late. I drank some coconut water and headed back to the casa. Headache is still lingering 5 hours later. Not sure how I am going to get it to go away unless I sleep. I am going to try out the new Powerbar Iron Man sports drink that I picked up at the RRS Adventure Run. Anyone have any other suggestions?
Tonight’s adventure run started and ended with total awesomeness. I roll up at the same time as RPIC and we ask “map guy” (will tell you about him later) to snap a photo. He put down all of his belongings (this is serious business) and obliged
Thanks to map guy we no longer have legs. Maybe that explains why I look so awkward.
Post photo-op we headed into RRS to see if there were any sales going on. RPIC pointed out that thanks to the Adventure Run Banner we are now local celebrities.
Let me zoom in for you
Do you spy HRM? Go go gadget arm and giant hand. Wait, there is more
No the arrow is not pointing to me. I am to the left in the tempos. Seriously, who took this shot?
We browsed for 15ish minutes and then it was time to get our run on. Map came out, we planned our route and off we went. It was such a nice night. 70 degrees with a nice breeze. Ahhhh I love SoCal. We did a 3.3 mile loop and collected about 25 raffle tickets. Not bad, right? Let the fun begin!
The DJ had it going on tonight. He was kickin’ it super old school with Bel Biv Devoe and Color Me Badd. That’s right, he was spinning the jams. This fired the crowd up for the raffle.
Someone high-five that guy. And then go hug the guy in aviators. He does not look amused.
Raffle gets going, shirts are being thrown, water bottles flying. It’s on and poppin. I love this stuff. Such a fun way to end a run. Patiently wait and check my tickets. Nada. Then, something awesome happened. An announcement that the next prize is a pair of Brooks shoes up to $140. The winner is…the person that can throw down some sweet dance moves. Time to shake my money maker.
And the winner is…
HRM BABY!!!
Woooooohhhhhhooooooooo!!! This white girl has moves you’ve never seen! YES! Can’t wait to pick out my new kicks for the rotation. SeeChacha, you gave me GOOD LUCK!!
Not only did I have an awesome time with my RPIC, I came home with some sweet stuff
Thank you Road Runner Sports for another awesome Adventure Run!
Time to go get caught up on BB and chill. I need to be good and rested for an early morning run and a fun day at Disneyland!
Morning Workout: 45 min strength training, 25 min spin.
No running this morning since I will be at RRS at 6pm for the 2nd Thursday Adventure run! Bring on the 2-a-days baby!
Leah, HRM, RPIC
I plan on winning in the raffle tonight and we all know I super celebrate when I win. Seriously. Ask RPIC. She was there when I won the gift card to Stone Brewery and acted like I won the lottery. I made up for my madness by giving it away. That reminds me! Hey girl that I gave that gift card to, keep me in mind if you win tonight, will ya?
If you are in the SD area get your hiney down to RRS and run with us. The event is free, there will be lots of awesome vendors on site (Brooks will be letting you try out shoes if ya want) and you could go home with some sweet schwag.THIS IS A NO BRAINER PEOPLE. See ya there!
I want to start today by thanking all of you for your kind comments and emails. I read every single one and they meant so much to me. I was not prepared for the curve ball that was thrown at me yesterday and I still feel a bit off-kilter.
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Today’s Run: 7 mile tempo. (1 mi easy, 5 mi @ MP, 1 mi easy)
This.run.sucked. There is no other way to put it. I was tired and my calves felt tight and sore from yesterday’s weight sesh. This resulted in total led leg. I hit mile 1 and sped up to MP. Because my legs were sore it felt sllloooowwwww. Let the mental games begin! I wanted to quit. I figured if I sped up a bit it would help. So I kicked in into higher gear which made it better for a bit and then I would remember that my legs hurt and I wanted to quit all over again.
The only thing that saved me is the “just one more mile game.” You know, the one where you promise yourself if you make it one more mile you can stop? No? It’s a fun one. You should try it sometime. This started for me at mile three. Told myself make it 4 and you can cool down and call it quits. Made it to 4 and promised myself after 5 I would for sure be done. At 5 I reminded myself I only needed to make it to 6 and then it was the “real” cooldown. Got to 6 and was so happy it was cool down time. And then that last “easy” mile felt horrifcally long. I slowed to an 8:30 pace and I felt like I was a transformer trying to sprint to the finish line. Legs were cursing my name.
Even though it was a crappy run I got through it and I am glad I did. I needed it even though I didn’t think so at the time.
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BB is on tonight where we will see who gets to play for the POV and whether or not the nominations will change. As of now Keith and Porsche are nominated and it appears that Keith will be going home. We will also get to see Evel Dick leave the house and hopefully get an explanation.
After the boring episode of the Bach on Monday I am looking forward to tonight’s BB. We all knew that Ryan would be going home at some point, however, I did feel bad for him. He was an emotional wreck.
photo cred: ABC
Other than that it was the same old Ashley song and dance. Oh, and we got to see the Em interview which, in my opinion, was a clear set up for her to be the next bachelorette.
Today’s workout: 40 min spin, some weights. Had to squeeze in my workout at lunch. Best part? Ran into my hubs at the gym. Awesome!
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On a sad note today has been a true whirlwind friends. My heart is heavy as my friend Christy went home to heaven.
We met 5 years ago when I lost my first pregnancy. She was part of a support group that I joined and she was so very positive. She always knew the right thing to say. She was witty that girl! We both ended up pregnant again in the fall of 2006 and got to experience 9 months (Well, really 10) of madness. Our babies were born just 2 weeks apart.
We kept in touch via email and blogs as our babies grew. She was there when I had yet another pregnancy loss in 2008 and again when I was blessed with my sweet girl. In December of 2009 she fell ill with AML. When I decided to run the RNR Marathon I signed up for Make Cures Happen to raise money for the LLS. She battled and went into remission on June 3, 2010. Imagine the joy! She could go home to her family. She beat cancer!
Exactly 1 year later (last month) she learned that she had relapsed and a bone marrow transplant was necessary. She was ready to battle again. She had a port put in and was fighting, fighting, fighting…until she couldn’t fight anymore.
Today the lord decided it was time for our dear friend to go home. She was 35 years old. I worry about her husband and sweet girl. I know that God will take care of them, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Please pray for the Hood family in Georgia. We know the power of prayer goes a long way.
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Thank you all for dealing with the sadness of my day. This is real life. I wish it could always be a laughing, family, friends, running, reality show par-tay but the truth is we all face a lot of challenges. It stinks but it grounds us. It reminds us that life is a blessing and that tomorrow is not a guarantee. With that go home and hug your family and tell them you love them. It’s never too late!
Haute Running Mama 