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detox bath for the win!

i must say... it worked. although i didn't feel great immediately following my detox bath earlier this week, i certainly felt better yesterday and today. i am still congested - but it's allergy season so i kind of expect that.

finally spring weather has arrived in Indiana! just in time for my first half marathon. this will be the first race for my Garmin Forerunner 10, and i'm more than a little excited to use the virtual pacer. hopefully it will help me get my time back down to my PR range (where it hasn't been since i got married).

the best part of this weekend, though, is definitely going to be hanging out with my sister and eating at my favorite restaurant in Bloomington, The Trojan Horse. gyros and saganaki, yum.

happy friday and happy race season!!

Under the weather

I've had a bit of a cold this week. All week, in fact, which is frustrating. Most of the time I wouldn't let this get in my way of a workout. This weekend, though, I'm running my first (and hilliest ever!) half marathon.

I'm curious. If anyone is reading, how do you decide when to rest when sick and when to go ahead and run easy? I always worry that I'm wimping out by not running.

Besides resting I'm taking another approach - a detox bath. This is new to me since until recently medicines haven't bothered me. Maybe it's getting older, or thinking about having a baby in the future, but I'd rather not take drugs anymore if there is another option. This bath has Epsom salt, baking soda, ginger, and essential oils. It's kind of uncomfortable and sweaty, but if I wake up tomorrow and feel better it's worth it!

Mourning

I was in mourning this weekend for the Indiana Hoosiers. They certainly decided to hit a downswing in their play at exactly the WRONG time.

Since I last blogged, I took Thursday and Friday off work and spent most of the day Thursday at Zumba, Yoga, and resting. Until the horrible game which caused me to drink too much wine and yell obscenities at the television. Which then snowballed into no-workout Friday. This was okay, considering I'd had a hard workout every day last week up until Friday, but... let's just say not working out on Friday was not for the right reasons.

I have a bad tendency to fall off the wagon when things don't go right. No, I'm not referring to basketball here! It was a tough weekend for a few reasons I'm not particularly willing to share at this point, and because of that there was no working out. At all. Which contributed to me continuing to be a big 'ol bum and refuse to do much of anything productive. I need some accountability for myself, because evidently weighing in just isn't going to cut it! So, I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get certified as a spinning instructor! Does anyone have any favorite instructor certification courses? I want a GOOD one. I'm willing to take the time!

And, lest I deceive you into thinking I have fallen FAR off the wagon - I have a nasty speed session for this afternoon, as follows:

• 2mi @ 10k pace
• 2x1 mi @ 5k pace
• 2x800 m @ 5k pace + 
• 3 minutes recovery after 2 mile and 2 minutes recovery after each mile and 800

This is from the Ryan Hall Half Marathon Training Plan, which I got from Runners' World at least three years ago. It has served me well! I don't always follow it to a tee, but it's challenging enough for me. 

That will probably be my toughest workout for the week, because I have my first race since November coming up on Saturday! I'll be running the Hoosier Half Marathon in lovely Bloomington, IN (home of my beloved alma mater, Indiana University). Should be an interesting one, considering I run in the Indy area (very flat) and the elevation of this course changes over 1000 feet during the race. If you're not familiar with the topography of Indiana - and why would you be - the north half is super flat and there are rolling hills south of Indy until you get to Kentucky. Ice bath, here I come! 

Beating Treadmill Boredom

As I recently shared, Indiana has been having some particularly hellacious early spring weather that has kept me on the treadmill longer than I want to be. There once was a time when I had the stones to run outside in Chicago in February. Those days are LONG gone.

I always run with music, for one. I have a playlist of running music that is used mostly for running - when I turn it on, it usually pumps me up. However, it does not typically pump me up for a couple of hours. Lately, I've taken my iPad with me and watched TV for the first hour or so of my run. It's easier to start with TV and end with music, because music impacts me in a way that TV never could. When the run gets tough, I need the music!

Something else I do, as silly as it may sound, is watch the time pass essentially. I break a run up into five minute sections. I try to run for 2.5 minutes, then I count 2.5 minutes. Once that 5 minutes is up, I can check my pace and mileage. I know it sounds crazy to watch the clock like that, but if I don't put some time limits on it, I will check pace and mileage constantly.

Anyway, that's what I do. If anyone has better ideas I would love to hear them :-)

Motivation

Some days are just so frustrating

I've been skipping out on my long runs for the past couple of weeks, in fact any working out between Thursday and Monday in general. Instead I've been enjoying time with friends and watching amazing basketball (Florida Gulf Coast what?!). These both have involved too much terrible food and alcohol... So needless to say, by last Friday my body was FEELING. IT. Spending the time with friends was great but man, do I need to figure out a happy medium.

Of course when I got home from work today I had the brilliant thought - hey, I'll make up my 12 mile long run tonight! Body had other plans. Running on wings, beer, and homemade mac n cheese is not a good idea. I made it 3.9 miles. How do you not get discouraged?

You remind yourself that instead of wallowing in self-pity, you ran 3.9 miles. In lieu of drinking with a friend, you ran 3.9 miles. Instead of feeling like you accomplished nothing, you remind yourself that you ran 3.9 miles. And the fact that you got on your feet and had a good sweat means you're one step closer to hauling ass out of the funk you've been in.

So cheers to everyone who did a little more than they did yesterday! I've got my eye on Friday - my first day off work in 3 months! - to take down that 12 miler :-)

Whoops.

My sincerest apologies to anyone who reads this for my non-post yesterday (Sarah). All my time has been occupied with watching basketball! My bracket is doing verrrrrry well, thanks to Oregon and Ole Miss!

I have a 12 mi run on tap for tomorrow and IN is apparently getting 10 inches of snow?? So I will let you know how I busy boredom on the treadmill for 2ish hours. It'll be my longest tready-run to date --my current record is 10 miles!

Sadly the thing I'm most excited about is to try out my new Bic Band! I have had a hard time finding something to hold back my flyaways (fine hair sucks sometimes) so I'll let you know how that goes too :-)

Post margarita = not so happy

Sometimes I need to be reminded that I am no longer 25.

Just kidding, it wasn't that bad, but it's just been one of those hectic mornings for no discernible reason. HOWEVER : March Madness, hooray! Unfortunately : it is below 30 degrees in Indiana. Are you KIDDING ME?!

Hope your Thursday is a great one!

Margaritas = happiness

Some days you just need a margarita. Or five. It was A Day at work, so the man and I went for Mexican and margs after work. We are both at kind of pivotal points I'm our career (thus the reason for furry kids instead of human ones at this point) so lately there's been a lot of tension and "Shop Talk" at home. My husband is always the best at encouraging and challenging me, so it works out pretty well.

In any case, it's a darn good thing that I got a workout in this morning. The later I stay up and watch recent episodes of Bones (God bless David Boreanaz... Such a beautiful man), the more tomorrow morning's tempo run is in question. Oh well - nights off can be good, especially when your weekends are as packed with miscellaneous house projects as ours are!

Here's a photo of one thing I'll be up to this weekend...drywall is (not) my fave!

Wednesday

I actually got up to go to 5:45am spin class today! Wahoo... This happens oh, once a month. I am pretty good at working out after work, but mornings are rough. I like to get up early and go to the gym so I can spend more time with the dogs (and husband...maybe) when I get home. You'd think this would motivate me... No. I usually tell myself the dogs would rather that I stay in bed and snuggle them but I'm pretty sure that, if given the choice, they'd like an afternoon walk. I'm a jerk.

We have a group celebration lunch for work today at Maggiano's. This could be bad for my weight loss trajectory.

Is anybody out there?

Mmmkay, so I don't really run in glasses. I tried recently, when I ran out of contacts. Bad experience. I ghetto-rigged a set of croakers (any other bespectacled 7 year old athletes remember those? No? Figures.) but they were an epic failure.

My name is Kaylie, and I am a very-close-to-the-big-3-0 CPA living in the general vicinity of Indianapolis, IN. I love to run half marathons (14 so far, 15 and 16 are scheduled for April and May) and am training for my first full marathon in November. I live with my two precious dogs and my handsome husband who tries to teach me not to be a helpless woman -- I have used many a power tool in the three years we've been married, that's kind of scary. I also live 1.5 miles from my mama and down the street from my high school best friend. What can I say, I'm blessed! But I figure... There's enough I don't know and enough times I screw up for some good comic relief. Hopefully someone besides my BFF in Houston reads someday :-)