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!

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.

 

 

Two Things I Will Never Get Used To

I’m coming up on my 5th year with LUNGevity Foundation and losing someone to lung cancer does not come any easier as it did when I first started. In the past week we lost two amazing women, both who I have met through Breathe Deep events. Both of them had children around my age, which hits me particularly hard. I still cry in my office, it still seriously sucks and I am more and more motivated each time to fundraise more, raise more awareness and work toward a day where no one dies of lung cancer.

The other thing that I will never get used to (or sick of) are the views running through Chicago. Fridays are ‘easy runs’ and they always seem to come at just the right time. You don’t have to focus on or worry about pace or mileage or other people, you can just run.

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.

A Few of My Favorite Things (and People)

In an attempt to ease my way back into blogging, I will post just a few things including a photo of my favorite (and cutest) running buddy. Here she is post 7-mile tempo run calculating how many treats I owe her.

Shout out to these ladies who raised over $4000 at their Lemonade for LUNGevity stand, stepping up to make an impact and support their mom.

And a big thank you to everyone who has donated to my Chicago Marathon fundraising page this year. I’m so grateful to have friends, family and co-workers who support all of the crazy things that I do.

Most importantly, Happy Birthday to this old man. Thanks for cheering me on for the last 29ish years and always having my back.

And So It Begins

To say we refreshed the browser a few times waiting for our training plans would be a serious understatement. When this email finally came, we were pretty excited.

And that excitement quickly turned into a constant state of tiredness. The week started off with a tempo run on Monday and boot camp Tuesday morning. Wednesday was Global Running Day which meant Deanne and I went to work representing! Not pictured here: our accidental twinning the day after.

It also meant that I had to mad dash from the Bank of America Chicago Marathon charity kick off near Grant Park (thankfully we were supposed to wear our gear)

to Fleet Feet for CES speed work (here we are finishing up with some stretch and strength).

Thursday was boot camp again and then Friday morning was an easy run with my new favorite running buddy (she’s so cute right?)

This weekend kicked off with dinner at a new seafood place nearby with Meghan and Laura and then a slumber party with these two (and a pretty early bed time).

They hung out in bed when I headed out for my long run Saturday where I met these fellow Team LUNGevity runners and Meghan for 7 miles. It was awesome connecting with Katie, one of our new runners! While talking we learned that her mom, a survivor, lives near the Cleveland event this weekend and is able to join us!

Then went with me to my sisters grad party (photo taken before prom last week).

Sunday we ‘rested’ which to me means dog beach, errands, and a nice stroll (okay maybe more than a stroll) around town.

This week is going to be busy. It starts off with a hill run tonight (and some dog beach time squeezed in there).

Then I am heading to Cleveland Thursday morning for a Breathe Deep event this weekend!

This week I am thankful for coffee

banana and egg pancakes (seriously. . .only two ingredients and so good)

and motivational signs in our kitchen (courtesy of LP).

And as always, THANK YOU to everyone who has generously donated to my fundraising page! With 117 days to go until marathon time (not counting or anything), I am feeling pretty great about my fundraising. To donate or learn more about LUNGevity click HERE.