2018: How to not run a marathon.

Running a marathon is hard (total understatement). Turns out NOT running a marathon is super hard too though. The first 5 marathons that I ran (including the one where I broke my foot), I crossed the finish line swearing I would never do it again. Within a few weeks (sometimes a few minutes) though, I’d be jonsing for next year’s race.

2017’s Chicago Marathon was different. I trained, HARD and every run that I did leading up to race day made me feel even more confident that I was going to hit my goal (ugh Oprah). And then I didn’t. . .like not even close. The whole thing was miserable and had my dad not been there pushing me along, I might have quit. At the time, I felt like the heat and my watch and a million other tiny things were the reason why I had such a terrible race but looking back on it, I realize now that it just wasn’t fun for me anymore.

My 2nd marathon (also Chicago) was totally awesome. I followed a training schedule, but I didn’t go into the season with a time goal. I met new people, tried out new running groups, and did what was best for me. That year was by far my most fun race and my best time. Then I found out that I just needed to shave 10 minutes off to beat Oprah’s time and the downward spiral began (hello burnout). So I’m hitting reset. My new years resolution is to NOT run a marathon in 2018. I’ll definitely be back because FOMO, but in the meantime, I’ll be spending this year running for fun (with my favorite running buddy Lola).

2018 is going to be a huge adjustment for me as I started a new job with the American Cancer Society. Leaving LUNGevity and all of my incredible co-workers and volunteers was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made but it also means that I’ll be spending a lot more time (and weekends) at home (during prime running season). There are SO MANY smaller, fun races that I’ve wanted to do in Chicago that I have missed out on in the last 5 years and I’m excited to try them out!

So now that I have some extra time on my hands (goodbye Monday 8 milers and Saturday long runs), I’m going to resume my ‘Cooking Through my Pinterest Board’ project that I started a couple of years ago. So stay tuned while I navigate this whole ‘no goal or plan thing’ and look forward to some yummy food posts (and some pinterest fails).

P.S. These two are the cutest right?

It’s Getting Real

New kicks for this weekend’s 20 miler and just 23 days to go until race time!

The Fine Line

Welcome to September where the temp gets lower, work gets busier and I, without fail, get sick.

I’ve had ALMOST 30 years of practice and I’m still trying to find a balance between regular self-motivation like this

and pushing so hard that I break my foot. I’m going to say that this year I am older and wiser (or that I am still recovering from the pain and doctor’s bills last time) because Monday I SKIPPED MY WORKOUT for the first time in 15 weeks, chugged OJ like it was my job and slept (hello Labor Day). Tuesday I modified my workout to do half of Monday’s and half of Tuesday’s and then drugged myself into a NyQuil coma after work. I’m not saying that I fully believe in this thing people call ‘rest’ but I will say that Wednesday I skipped to the train like a brand new person!

With 30 days to go until the marathon and my first official Fall Breathe Deep event this Sunday (hey Breathe Deep Dupage), I’m excited to be back to normal and ready to kick Oprah’s AND lung cancer’s butt!

THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to my page AND huge shout out to my sister who is running her first marathon this year for Paws and crushed her fundraising goal!

5 Years Down

The last few weeks have been so busy that I totally forgot to post about my 5 year work anniversary. I looked back at last year’s post around this time and realized that I feel pretty much exactly the same.

I could have never in a million years imagined how crazy weird and awesome my life would be. In the last four five years, I’ve had the most amazing co-workers, participants and volunteers, I’ve run 4 5 marathons raising thousands of dollars and every morning (okay pretty much every morning. . .I’m human) I wake up super excited to go to work. This totally is not the life I had planned for myself but I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turned out so far.

With fall (yay fall) event season gearing up and Chicago Marathon just 32 days away, it’s about to get pretty busy around here. THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to my Team LUNGevity fundraising page and to all of the amazing humans who are running with me on October 8th and raising money. And super huge shout out to this little gopher who started her first day of COLLEGE today, they grow up so fast.

 

Weekly workouts & all of the steps

Tuesdays and Thursdays are for cross training which means that Laura, Deanne and I suffer through a morning boot camp class (at least we’re together right)? I guess it’s a good thing that even though we have been going for almost a year, I still get sore in muscles I didn’t know existed. What I do know though, is this statement is the truth. I thought I knew how to count to 12 but every Tuesday morning in Greg’s class I start to wonder how shotty my math is.

Wednesday’s are speed work and this week was actually a lot more fun than I was anticipating. It’s not as bad as it looks (well. . . it kind of is).

Friday mornings are my favorite. No pace goal, no mileage goal, just run for 45 minutes and listen to podcasts while enjoying the view (something that will never get old).

And today’s run was even more exciting because I got my new Garmin in!

Aside from the lengthy amount of time it takes for me to make a big life decision (so many pro/con lists), one of the biggest reasons why I have avoided getting a new Garmin is because I feared I would become obsessed steps. I like to get my steps in (serious understatement) because you know. . . a girl’s gotta eat (#balance) and I could tell you at any point in the day roughly how many steps I have (by “roughly” I mean within 20). Now that I have a watch buzzing at me when I sit for too long, I feel the pressure to get in all of my steps before I even start my day (that’s not crazy is it?) I guess it’s something I’ll have to work on. . .

P.S. I love when my inbox looks like this 🙂

P.P.S.S. (< this probably isn’t right) SUPER proud to be running with all of these amazing humans on Team LUNGevity!

If you need me. . .

. . .I’ll be in hiding, setting up my new Garmin! #Oprahsgoingdown

Weekend Wrap Up

Runner’s stomach is a real thing (I mean, it’s on the Google at least) and it sucks. So the past few weekends I have been making small changes to my Friday night routine to make sure that I don’t waste my Saturday’s being miserable.

A few adjustments I have made (begrudgingly):

No coffee before long runs. What am I? A robot?

More electrolytes. Some of you may remember my wise decision to chase Skol Vodka with lemon lime Gatorade my freshman year of college, I actually do not. I am sure some people (you know who you are) told me it was a bad idea and I likely told them I would be fine.  I was in fact not fine and I came out of that experience alive, but with an aversion to all Gatorade. Unfortunately for me, it’s the Chicago Marathon’s drink of choice so I have decided that after 5 marathons, I am going to work on possibly, maybe, drinking a few sips. Gross.

Eating earlier. I’m a morning person. Like the rise and shine, do 3 loads of laundry before work, kind of morning person. But the thought of having to wake up to eat at 4 am for a 6:30 am run stinks (even to me). This means my bedtime on Friday night is roughly. . .basically when I get home from work.

No cheese. Just on Friday night though. . I’m not crazy. This is sadly the hardest adjustment I’ve had to make because the past several years of training I’ve looked forward to Friday night pizza or pasta. This past Friday I ate chicken (ugh) and vegetables (super boring ugh).

It’s hard to tell since this past weekend was a cut back week and *only* 8 miles BUT no issues after so I guess the next 12 weeks are going to be super boring.

Because of thunderstorms, CES group runs were cancelled on Saturday morning which meant an extra hour of sleep for me (yay). Around 7:45 am, I headed out for an 8 mile swim. . . kidding, run. The first 4 miles were at long run pace and then last 4 miles were race pace (scary).

Then afterward I taught Lola how to plank. She’s clearly a quick learner.

Then today at lunch Deanne and I biked over to the Soldier Field Sled Hill to get in our hill repeats. Our plan was to do 8 hills until an old guy running near us challenged us to do 2 more. . . positive peer pressure I guess.

Since we worked out sans phones, no photos were taken (you’re welcome) so I will leave you with this.

 

 

Beat Oprah

Last nights speed workout call for Fartleks (my fave) and since Lola had a social engagement, I had to channel my inner dog without her.

This morning Deanne and I were looking forward to yoga at the new Park at Wrigley (because we don’t spend enough time together) but woke up to a thunderstorm. So yoga and rolling happened indoors instead — boo.

And for the most exciting news ever. . . (drum roll please) after over a year (yep, you read that right) of pro and con lists I FINALLY bit the bullet and bought a Garmin. It felt like fate when I found one of my finalists on sale (and got an extra discount from my roommate!). So now I wait like a kid at Christmas for the mail and prepare to kick Oprah’s butt once and for all.

P.S. Apparently I share this dream with several others because when I googled Oprah’s time, the below (and so many more) popped up.

Surround Yourself with Good People

Growing up my dad always told us that if our friends make bad decisions, we were responsible too because that’s who we chose to surround ourselves with. I’m pretty sure he just didn’t want us doing drugs or whatever else kids were doing those days (jumping off cliffs?) but as an adult, those words have so much more meaning. Last week was the YNPN Chicago Annual Celebration that I have been working on for months now. As we were cleaning up at the end of a SUPER long night, I ran into a girl that I run with at Fleet Feet and she asked me how I do it all. The honest answer to that is that I don’t. I have no idea how it happened but I am incredibly lucky to be surrounded with such amazing people. . .all of the time. The YNPN Board (not pictured below: Cara who rocked sponsorships) is full of smart and motivated and wonderful people who are always eager to help with anything I need. Huge shout outs to Ana at Whole Foods and Michael Jordan (you read that right) at MCL for all of the guidance. Sorry about the endless calls and emails.

My family has always had my back whether it’s donating to my fundraising pages, cheering me on, listening to me cry (I cry a lot, sorry guys) and most recently, letting me borrow all of their card tables for this event (not weird at all) and testing out my themed props (someones gotta do it).

I’ve been super fortunate to work at a place that is always so supportive in and out of the office. From helping me with Celebration’s catering order (hey Diana) to naming 90’s raffle packages and reminding me that there is always a solution to every problem (Deanne).

And to have friends like Laura that write me notes like this one regularly. If Kid President plans on retiring anytime soon, I think I know someone who can fill in.

And I am so super grateful for this hunk who takes so many of my crazy ideas and helps me make them happen.

Thanks for lifting all of this stuff (several times).

And always cheering me on.

Sorry for the whole no sleeping ever thing.

With work about to get busier (hey event season) and marathon training coming up, I am reminded every day how lucky I am to have such wonderful people that have my back and are always cheering me on (no matter how crazy my ideas are).

Since I plan on crushing Oprah’s time in this year’s marathon (training starts next week- ahhh), I will end with some wise words from her.

 

Internet, Meet Lola

Meet Lola. She loves shoes, gazing out the windows, snuggling and lucky for me: running.

I was a little hesitant to give up any of my ‘me time’ because most days my run seems to be the only time I have to myself but last week I had a late start so I took her out for a morning run and we fell in love. Little does she know she just signed herself up for the next 23 weeks of training (she’s a natural) — so stay tuned to see her sporting a Team LUNGevity shirt soon! To donate and support my (and Lola’s) fundraising efforts click HERE. This will be my last year run for a charity so I plan on making it count!

Our Breathe Deep Events have kicked off and it has been super busy over here. Between Toledo and North Shore just passed and we have a ton of events coming up!

Outside of work, I am running the Chicago Spring Half Marathon on May 21 (my first half in years) and planning a 90’s themed Celebration event for YNPN May 18th. This is basically how I feel all of the time:

Big shout out to my sister for finishing her first half marathon for Paws! It was in the 90’s AND hilly and I’m pretty impressed.