Monday, September 24, 2012

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 39)

9.24.12 - White Chicken Chili  (I added cheese soup to this recipe... yumm!)
9.25.12 – 3 cheese and beef stuffed shells
9.26.12 – Leftovers
9.27.12 – Cheesy Lime Chicken & Rice
9.28.12 – Crockpot Ranch Pork Chops w/ pasta salad
9.29.12 – Watching USC vs. UK game… food TBD
9.30.12 – Homemade Pizza/Calzones

Sorry, the links for recipes are missing, since I posted from my phone. I'll fix that next time I'm at home with the computer!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Why I hate icepacks

1. Generally, ice packs are only used when you’re hurting. Hurting = no fun.
2. Whenever you first put on your icepack, the cold actually hurts a little worse than the real hurt.
3. Mostly, it is impossible to move around while wearing an icepack. I’m not a sit still kinda girl. (Anyone wanna be my trainer and wrap my leg up with saran wrap and ice like you see on the college athletes walking around after a practice or game?)
4. Icepacks = hurting = must rest from training. Blegh.

4 weeks away from race day, and I’m being forced to take the weekend off because of probable tendonitis (overuse injury). You might remember this happened to me last year when I was training as well! We have trained all the way up to 9 miles, and last weekend we had a GLORIOUS 9 miler. Never felt so good during run before… hoping and praying I feel that good on race day.

That being said, I’m praying for some quick healing and want to get back out on the road running next week. I’ll be hanging out with my BFF’s advil and the icepack this weekend! (oh, and that fuzzy guy in the background)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 38)

9.17.12 - Leftovers for Ryan/Sorority House dinner for me!
9.18.12 - Rush's free Burgers w/ football tickets
9.19.12 - Crockpot Potato Soup
9.20.12 - Leftovers/Salads/Sandwiches
9.21.12 - Grilling
9.22.12 - Dinner on the road back from a wedding
9.23.12 - TBD

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 37)

9.10.12- leftovers/pantry clean out
9.11.12- dinner at axo alumnae meeting
9.12.12- soup and sandwiches
9.13.12- Greek festival!
9.14.12- birthday party
9.15.12- USC vs. UAB tailgate
9.16.12- tbd

Friday, September 7, 2012

2 bad runs

This weeks' runs have been pretty eye-opening for me.

Monday, I set out with Jennifer on a 7 mile trek around her neighborhood, and I didn't feel bad before we left (in fact, I did everything normally, Mexican food the night before, cheese toast English muffin for breakfast, etc.) Perhaps it was the holiday weekend that got me, but I trudged through the first 4.89 miles, and probably stopped at least once every mile to catch my breath/walk off sore legs. We finally reached our water stop, got some drinks, visited with Jennifer's sister in law, and stretched before our final 2.11 miles. I thought it'd be better from there on out, but had to stop again in the middle of mile 6. Finally, we made it back to her road and I managed to finish the last mile without stopping, but it was pretty tough. The overwhelming reward of finishing this awful 7-miler was jumping off the end of the dock into the lake. However, one lesson learned, sore legs don't do too much for you in the treading water department. Next time we'll use floaties!

After that bad run, I really really wasn't looking forward to Wednesday's run. Jenny and I set out on our usual 4 mile loop and quickly realized, we weren't going to make it the full distance. Both of us had sore legs and quite frankly, just weren't feeling it! We pushed ourselves to finish 3 miles. Our pace was more than 1min/mile slower than usual. Not much to say other than it just wasn't good.

FINALLY, this morning, we broke the cycle with a great 4 miler. Both Jenny and I knew it was a "good run day" within the first half mile. We hit our stride at a much better pace than Wednesday, and only stopped to walk/stretch after the giant hill. I started talking about our goal to keep running after the big hill. We also discussed the hills in the Georgetown course, because Jenny is now registered to do it with us!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have both my running buddies with me for race day!

All this to say, I've never experienced a "bad run" on a long run day before. Nor have I experienced two "bad runs" in a row like I did this week. I just need to continue to remind myself that training is all about preparing your mind and body for WHATEVER comes your way on race day, and preparing to persevere through it, no matter what.

There are 36 days left til race day! Not sure if I'm more excited about the race, or about a weekend at the beach!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Menu Plan Monday (Year 2, Week 36)

Sheesh!  Despite the holiday and short week, this week is busy!  Luckily, we're getting the hang of this crazy schedule so here's what we're eating....

9.3.12 - Labor Day Cook out... Burgers w/ Pimento Cheese
9.4.12 - Stuffed Peppers (Combining a few recipes to make a new one, if it is a success, I'll share it here later!)
9.5.12 - Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Cole Slaw
9.6.12 - Celebrating one of our favorite kid's b-days
9.7.12 - Dinner out with friends
9.8.12 - Making Hashbrown Casserole for Tailgate, Making a Yummy Icecream Sandwich Dessert for Supper Club
9.9.12 - TBD