Things I Love Thursday - 8/18

Things I Love Thursday - 8/18 edition

Gel manicures

This baby is 2 weeks out and still going strong despite harsh hospital soap and cleaners, opening paint, and swimming in chlorinated water a TON. I'm sold.

lululemon's triumph tote

picked this baby up at the lululemon ann arbor showroom last week and i'm OBSESSED. purchased as a gym bag, then realized that it will not hold any of the swim things i would need to tote with me if i were to swim with it, so it may become just an every day bag, but we'll see. 

RUNNING

this has been questionable lately - i had a rough run monday night with too much foot pain to continue running. so zero activity tuesday, and today i tested it out. RUNNING SUCCESS. i majorly slowed down the pace on this one and resorted back to .75 miles as maximum without walking distance. compromises i can take for a pretty much pain free run. and i'm only losing about a mile if i continue to stick with the training plan. i'd be more than happy with 9 for the week :) 

And finally for your viewing pleasure:

meet mogley (pronounced mowgli like in the jungle book), my brother's gf's pup who i had the pleasure of pup-sitting on saturday night. i'm so in love.

Running to Bake - Puppy Love from Lauren Reid on Vimeo.

tried to get pictures of him, and failed (don't know how to work my rebel well enough), so i resorted to the photobooth video. awesomesauce.

Costs of a Broken Foot

So I broke my foot last June. Running my very first half marathon. awesome huh?

So that left me out of commission for a good two months. So what's a running-obsessed girl to do? Find something else to be obsessed with.

This post is especially fitting because right now that foot is being a humongous pain in the ass and giving me crap for switching up my return to running routine.

So my running substitute? swimming. I tried biking, but its just not as fun as actually getting outside, counting out laps, breaths, and obtaining spectacular tan lines.

I have always had a "jump-headfirst" mindset when it comes to trying new things. And a "if i buy this, i will then do this" mindset.

This worked out okay in the long run when it came to a lot of my running gear (example: garmin forerunner 305 - purchased: july 2009, utilized consistently: march 2011.) but that's not necessarily the case always.

When I bought my iPod shuffle a few summers ago, I actually intended to use it for swimming! (although that swimming never actually happened)

So to start off with swimming I made a single purchase:

An awesome multi-colored swim cap for $11.

tyr kalidoscope swim cap 

So after swimming pretty consistently for 5 weeks or so, I took a trip to swimoutlet.com and placed an order.

sporti pull buoy (in pink of course)

sporti flotation belt

triswim shampoo

and finally to round out the complete swimming essentials for semi-serious business swimmers:

a kickboard.

and not just any kickboard. a $5 from target's children's swim section DORA THE FREAKING EXPLORER kickboard.

you know you're jealous. its okay. no need to confirm/deny.

I think kickboards are pretty universal in their function, and dora seems to work just fine. (i usually flip her over so that the plain blue side is on the top when i'm swimming, just to not seem like a total creepster).

So a few comments about my swimming paraphernalia.

So the swimming shampoo. I still don't know if its really necessary since I wear a swim cap, but I figure most swimmers do, and there's still this product, so I'll go with it.

I looked into this brand a while ago, was bummed to see it contained parabens (more about these icky things later), and didn't order. Then when I looked on swimoutlet.com it specifically said paraben free and i was all over that.

When it came in the mail i look at the ingredients to see this:

but wait -- what's this?

WTF TRISWIM? what is it??

So I made a phone call to them this morning, and they're checking with the chemists.  I will keep you updated.


2nd thing: the floatation belt.

Yes, I'm going to water jog. Reading Cris's blog about her return to run post metatarsal fracture has pretty much solidified my interest in aqua jogging. so, once I'm back at school and at the school pool, I'm going to start it up. I'm a little too embarrassed to pull it out at the dearborn pool. lame lame. I will, of course, keep you all apprised of how it works out.

Evaluating Goals

Hello August 15, 2011.

Hello mid-august.

Hello goal evaluation time.

1. develop impeccable habits.

this has actually been going super well. after august 3rd, I have worn my retainer every night, as well as clarisonic+moisturizer (well minus a few nights away from home where i resorted to yes to cucumber face wipes, but i think this is an acceptable substitute). the only thing i haven't been great about is face masks, and cleaning my clarisonic like i should. also making sure to soak my retainer in baking soda (super gross i know. i am full of TMI on this blog) things to work on!

stats: retainer: 12/14 nights
clarisonic+moisturizer: 26/28 opportunities

2. run smart

this has been totally accomplished thus far, but i do have increasing mileage and runs/week to worry about, and need to keep in mind that i am not yet a speed demon and CANNOT push myself too hard.

goals for the last two weeks: keep runs around 9-10 min mile pace.
try to stick to the plan, but be flexible if necessary
x-train, x-train, x-train


3. read more

finished the 8th pretty little liars book "Wanted" (which really shouldn't even count, but I don't care), and have been pushing through "the girl who kicked the hornet's nest" ever since. I hate getting to the end of series - i always want to drag it out (see Pushing Daisies, Friday Night Lights, and Gilmore Girls. All of which I have yet to watch the series finales of, despite them being some of my favorite shows). Not sure if it counts, but I'm on disc 10 of 13 of omnivore's dilemma, which i am loving. Michael Pollan, you rock. Also working on Kara Goucher's Running For Women, which I'm also enjoying. expect a "things learned from Ms. Goucher" list soon :)

4. cook more

this has not happened at all. so now i need to get 7 meals and 3 baked goods in. crap.

super easy recipe suggestions please?

5. make a budget

haven't touched this yet. sort of problematic. must do asap.


are you a goal-setter? if so, what are your goals?

Training Log - August 7-August 13

I've decided to track my training here, just so I have a more thorough record of my training than my dailymile account.

Training Log - August 7 - August 13


Sunday
Run in the arb. 3.01 miles total running/walking. 1.25 running.
This run felt good - it was so nice to be back in familiar favorite running territory. Aside from the mosquito attack that left me with 5 or 6 bites, it was perfect.


Monday
Rest day.


Tuesday
Another rest day. Planned on getting in a run tuesday night, but the perfect weather forecast for Wed. morning mad me put it off and pull a two-a-day.



Wednesday

4.45 miles running/walking. 1.5 running
This was a park/middle school run/walk, which again, felt good. I'm just honestly so happy to be out there running again, even if its at a painstakingly slow pace.

1600 m swim at the pool.
an easy mile at the pool to shakeout the muscles. did some laps with the kick board for the first time, which went well.

Thursday
Jillian Michaels workout dvd - Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism.
50 minutes of J. Michaels cardio which kicked my ass.

Friday
yoga at lululemon ann arbor showroom.

2000m swim at the pool.
breakdown: 20 laps breast,
8 laps kick board flutter kick, 2 laps buoy arm isolation
10 laps free
10 laps breast
10 laps free
10 laps breast
4 laps kickboard, 6 laps buoy arm isolation
10 laps free

Last week I made the swimming plunge and bought some things from swimoutlet.com. seriously, i have a problem. Included in this purchase was a buoy for arm isolation, and a flotation belt for water jogging, as well as a shampoo which I have a serious rant about, but thats coming later. My kickboard is from target's children's swim section. You'll see this in my all-swimming post coming later this week.

Anyway, these purchases made me feel like a serious business swimmer, and I actually really enjoy using them. Plus, more reasons for me to continue shopping (although everything I've bought for swimming has been super reasonably priced. unlike $200 garmins, and $100 running shoes, and $20 tempos x9038204832)

This felt good at the time, but once I got home, I was SO SORE. I don't know if it was the jillian, yoga, swimming, or all of the above in combination (gotta love synergy!), but i definitely half-napped before I went to see the glee movie that night (which was PHENOMINAL btw. my glee love is out of control. my only complaint? not enough songs!)

Saturday
3.89 miles run/walk. 1.50 running.

Another day spent running in .75 intervals. but guess what? This is the last one. It's 1 mile+ from here on out, and I am so excited.

PR-crushing half marathon in 63 days, get ready for me.

 

sweaty varieties

Wednesday morning I went out for another easy walk/run combo. I upped my "running-without-stopping" distance to .75 miles (we're getting crazy over here), and just went out there and got it done.

I brought my camera along for fun, and snapped a few pictures throughout the run.

AM temps were perfect for this baby, by the way. Under 70 to start out with. perfect!

track/park entrance

pool! where i do all my oh so fun 2000m swims!

good morning world!

Post run, I came back home and decided to take the pup for a quick walk around the neighborhood to up my walking time.

hi sadie!

 I then proceeded to wear this outfit to target and sports authority, because I knew I was planning on swimming later in the day and didn't want to shower, swim, and then shower again. All about efficiency people!

also made my favorite smoothie of late - choco sun warrior, soy milk, raspberries, banana.

I did 1500m in the pool later on Wednesday, and then called it a day.

pool again!

Yesterday I attempted to swim as well, but found that there was some event going on at the pool where they removed the lane markers and there was a TON of small children. nope, not dealing with that. 

So i went to on demand and had a date with ms. jillian michaels.

For this being a "at home cardio" work out, I am pretty damn sore this morning. damn you jillian michaels. Had to do a few modifications with this one - was not doing mountain climbers with my healing foot, tyvm. but for the most part I kept up, pushed hard, and felt like I got a super serious work out. AWESOME.

And now I'm off to lululemon yoga!

what have you done to sweat lately?

Running Again!

So I'm running again.

and it feels SO GOOD.

My first run out was of course on august first (did you really expect anything less?). After a long day at work, I headed out around 8:30 for an easy walk/run combo.

In middle school I ran track, mostly because at that age it was a social thing to play sports with your friends (high school sports are just too competitive for the semi-athletically challenged like myself). Our middle school track was (and still is) pretty sad, so our warm up was always 2 laps around the fence - aka the football and soccer fields. Somehow the fence works out to be almost exactly half a mile. So that's what I did.

And guess what? ZERO PAIN. running felt good, I kept it slow, half a mile at a time, and I rocked it.

rocking the hot pink compression socks, tempos, and skinnyrunner tee!

Run #2 happened Friday morning. I was out of town Tuesday and Wednesday night, so zero runs then, and I had plans come up for Thursday night, so it was a swimming day (the summer heat limiting my runs to early AM or right before sunset is a bummer), but Friday morning I was up early to go for run #2.

Run #2 was great as well. I realized I could use the lap function on my garmin to get splits for running and walking, and ran a teensy bit faster to see how it would go. Same setup as monday: walk .5, run .5, but friday's run ended with .25 on sidewalk - something I hadn't done yet.



Although there's a little discomfort in my foot occasionally, I think for the most part I'm good. Tonight? Run in the arb. This girl cannot wait.

I have an extremely tenative training plan for the rest of august, to get me to the point where I can run the detroit free press half on october 16.

I have no set days of the week for this training events, and I'm just kind of seeing how it goes.
My swimming is limited to Wed-Sat for the month, but everything else I'm pretty flexible with.



Also contemplating the incorporation of water jogging into this baby. Kind of scary right?

I'm also contemplating how I can increase my swimming -- because I'm seriously falling in love. It may lose some of its appeal once I'm indoor swimming, and incorporating it into my class schedule, but we'll see!

Somehow it’s august already. No clue how this happened, but what it means two things:

1. I can run today! Run meaning walk half a mile walk half a mile and pray that my foot doesn’t give me any trouble, but running! Life is good.
2. In 36 days I’ll be starting law school.

So with these big impending changes, I’m making some august goals.


Goal 1: Develop impeccable habits.

This was one of my new years resolutions, and while I’m doing much better than a year ago, I’m still not where I’d like to be. So here it goes – in tangibles.

Face regimen (clarisonic+moisturizer) 90% of the time (56/62 opportunities)
Retainer 80% of nights (25/31 nights)
Face mask once a week (4/4 weeks)

Goal 2: Run smart

This is a vow to not push myself too hard too fast and re-break my foot.
I have half marathon #2 on the calendar, but there is no guarantee that I will actually run it. And that’s how Im going to approach it.
No running faster than a 9:30-10:00 minute mile for the first 2 weeks.
Keep it around nine for the last two weeks.
There will be a more in depth training plan to come, but this is the big important stuff now.

Goal 3: Read 5 books

Including two on the law school’s recommended reading list.

Goal 4: cook more

turkey tacos from saturday night! so good!

7 new meals and 3 new baked goods are on the agenda.

Goal 5: Create a budget
This is the first time I'm taking out a whole slew of student loans, and I've kind of been living the high life lately with no rent and a paycheck every two weeks with little expenses. (see marc jacobs watch and designer jeans shopping). Make a budget for the school year and stick to it!



Do you have any goals for august?