Monthly Archives: September 2010

Well hello there! So so so very sorry for leaving you hang’n. I have grad school this weekend and we have a 15-20 page paper due. I had about 18 pages written but on Sunday night began doubting myself as to if I did the assignment correctly so I’ve been trying to sort that out and literally EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of free time I have has been spent on that.  Thank goodness I’m done training for the half marathon and thank goodness for my DVR! I should probably be working on it now but I just needed a break!

So, I had an AWESOME half marathon experience. All my training and preparing paid off. I felt so awesome during and after the race. I was so proud of myself! I started out doing what I had planned for recovery. I knew I was going to be sitting at the parade during the afternoon so I wanted to take and ice bath as soon as I could after the race. I was surprisingly not hungry after racing and forced myself to eat a little of the bread I made Friday night before I jumped in the ice bath. While in the tub I remember that I had bought chocolate milk as a recovery drink. I slammed that down as I was racing to get back to the parade. I had to park pretty far from the parade route but I thought a little walk would be good to keep my legs loose.

I was thoroughly enjoying the parade but still wasn’t hungry, which is really odd for me. I am usually STARVING after running that far. I munched on a few chipolte pecans my dad had made which were AWESOME! I must get the recipe from him! But that was about it. Then I started to “celebrate”.

I had two pumpkin beers during the parade and that small cup I’m holding is a “pudding shot.” Some kind girls we were sitting near offered us one. It had Bailey’s Irish Creme, vodka, pudding, and whip cream. It was DELICOUS! After that I realized I should probably eat something. My mom had brought along hot dogs. I still wasn’t hungry but I forced myself to eat one and chugged some water. Later I munched on a piece of string cheese and an apple. Still after running 13.1 miles over the period of 2 hours and burning almost 1800 calories I should have eaten more, or at least consumed my calories in a healthier form than beer.

I was still pretty peppy after the parade and rather than go home and put my feet up I thought it would be a good idea to meet up with my friend Amy and her hubby Ryan at the Festgrounds. Her parents were also there and the beer began to flow! Not a good idea! Then I met up with these two crazy kids!

That’s my brother and his girlfriend. They are in a local production of Sweeney Todd and marched in the parade to promote it. The beer continued to flow as we listened to a great band. At one point I realized I was a little hungry so I got some crab Rangoon that were REALLY garlicky. I didn’t really enjoy them but knew I should eat SOMETHING!

Pretty early on in the evening (I’d say 7:30pm) I hit a major wall. The race, the alcohol, and not refueling properly caught up with me. I just wanted to go home and go to bed. My brother thought I should eat something and we headed to a pizza place. I could not stomach the thought of eating ANYTHING. Finally my brother took me home and I went straight to bed at 9:30pm.

I felt AWFUL the next day. It took me pretty much the whole day to recover. For someone who is so healthy 99% of the time I really messed up. I was pretty down on myself. I mean here my wonderful body carried me 13.1 miles, nearly effortlessly and look what I did to it in return? Don’t worry my body let me know how mad it was at me the next day. I acknowledged that I made a huge mistake and  I got over it, lesson learned. It really got me thinking about how being healthy is so much more than losing weight. It’s about honoring the gift that is your body. I was so amazed at what my body did for me during the race and I know I should have respected that, that I should respect what a gift my body and my health is every day! I have been very kind to my body ever since. I tried to eat well on Sunday and even took a yoga class. I’ve been eating pretty healthy since than too. I haven’t run since the race but I taught Zumba, Cycling (twice) and Group Strength. I plan on getting a run in tomorrow. 

So that’s what’s new with me! I have grad school tomorrow night and all day Saturday and then on Sunday I’m going with my parents to Madison to see Wicked! I am so totally pumped! We are hoping to go out to eat before the show. Any Madison readers out there have any suggestions? I really wanted to go to Bluphies but it is closed for a special event

Hopefully once this major paper is done I can get back to regular posting!

Don’t forget! Honor your body!

Good Sunday afternoon to you! I know I said I’d be back “later” with a post but I didn’t expect it to be this much later! But, that’s a different story for a different post!

Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for!

I had an AWESOME race yesterday! I set my alarm for 5:30am. I ate my normal prerun breakfast of toast, peanut butter, and a banana. I also drank a small cup of green tea and water. I headed down to the park where the race start was. I part a few blocks away so I could get in a little walk as a warm up. I immediately got my timing chip and then stood in line (a very long line!) for the bathrooms. By the time I got out of the bathroom there was only 10 minutes until race start! It wasn’t too cold out about 50 degrees so I felt I had dressed correctly for the weather. I walked around a little bit and then stood with the other runners at the start of the race.

I was inspired by my reading the night before the race so I made and Operation Beautiful sign and pinned it to the back of my shirt!

The start was kind of odd, there was no gun or horn we just all started running. I tried to maintain a slower pace for the first couple of miles. It took me about 3 miles to really get into the grove. I felt really good the whole time! I kept waiting to hit a wall or to feel tired or pain in my feet but I just didn’t! Once I was over  half way I knew I had it! Once I passed 8 miles (my new favorite long distance) and I still felt awesome I really took off! I saw a lot of people I new from the Y volunteering on the course. It was so great to have their support. It really kept me motivated. So, did having the Operation Beautiful sign on my back. Several people told me they liked it and thanked me. That really kept me going! There were a few hills on the course and I was really glad I had done some hill training I powered right up them, no problem! The last two miles of the course were on the parade route. Not too many people waiting for the parade to start seemed to care and nobody really cheered that is, until the final mile. There was a one mile kids run during the last part of the race and the kids just happened to start as I was passing by. I know the crowd was cheering for them but it really pumped me up. I really put on the speed during the last mile. My mom got some pictures of me heading towards the finish line!

I came flying into the finish line and was given a finishers medal by one of the kids from my church! It was such an awesome race! I felt so good and proud of myself afterwards!

The official results aren’t up yet but my Garmin said 2:08:32 with an average mile of 9:52!

I’m so happy to report that the 2Toms blister powder worked like a charm! I had no new blisters after the race! I headed home to for and ice bath and a hot shower and then rushed back down for the parade where I saw some crazy sites like these

And then I thought I’d so a little celebrating!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about how NOT to recover after a long race! 

Well hello there! Happy Friday to you! I hope you’re weekend is off to a great start.

So, what does a blogger do the night before a big race? Well, bake bread of course!

WHAT? I’ll get back that in a moment. I thought it would be interesting to show you what I do the day before a race. First off I got to sleep in until 7am since I didn’t have to work out! Even though it was a chilly fall morning I decided I needed to energize with green smoothie!

I balanced this off with a nice HOT cup of pumpkin spiced chi tea in my Barbie mug of course!

I had a VERY productive morning at work and then came home for lunch. I had left over meatballs and spaghetti, that was even more delicious on day two! Look what else I ate that came straight from our garden!

I cleaned it up and cut it into carrot sticks. Unfortunately it was kind of bitter! After lunch I had to run an errand for work and decided to pick up my race packet!

Most of the stuff in the swag bag was advertising but the real prize was the Oktoberfest button. I guess I failed to mention that the race is part of this CRAZY celebration that takes place every year. There is a HUGE parade tomorrow, and the race course pretty much runs down the route. Mostly it’s a time where everyone drinks a lot of beer and acts stupid. I don’t really get into that aspect of it but it is kind of fun to watch! So, the button gets you into the festgrounds and it’s worth about $6! Score!

The T-shirts are really cool too!

I love the red color (looks a little bright in this light) and the writing and the emblem are off center one on the bottom left corner and one on the upper right shoulder and then there is writing on the sleeve. Very cool! Can’t wait to wear it to the parade, hope I’m warm enough!

After work I got all my gear together for the race.

GU and Gummy Bears in my fuel belt.

Gatorade mixed up and put in the fridge

Clothes, and 2Toms laid out and ready to go. I also pinned my race number to my belt incase I get hot (doubt it) and need to take off my top layer. I also charged my MP3 player, my Garmin, and the video camera.

Then my mom and dad picked me up and we headed to the Harvest Dinner down at the festgrounds. I had the vegetarian dish which had squash, zucchini, and huge portabella mushrooms with pasta (times 2!), a lovely salad, and some AMAZING apple crisp (times 2!).

Check out the pretty fall decorations!

As the sun set and wind picked up it got pretty chilly outside! I hope it’s not too cold for the race tomorrow!

When I got home I immediately changed into sweats. For some reason I had this huge desire to bake something, which is odd because I am not big into baking! I had seen a recipe on Tina’s blog for chocolate chip squash bread. Since my town seems to be out of pumpkin and I just happened to have some already cooked squash (pumpkin is pretty similar to squash right?) in my freezer I thought I’d give it a try! I had to change a few things. We had less than a cup of sugar so I made up the remaining cup with brown sugar. The butter I had looked questionable so I used coconut oil (melted) instead. I plan on eating it after the race. I’ll let you know how it turned out!

I am feeling rather tired which hopefully means I’ll get a good night’s sleep. I think I’ll hunker down in bed with this.

After hearing about Operation Beautiful  (even posting a few notes myself) and reading Caitlin’s blog for almost a year now I finally bought the book the other day. I can’t wait to read it!

See you later (much later) tomorrow with a race recap!

Good evening friends! Hope you had a wonderful Thursday. It was my day off from my church job but I taught two classes at the Y.

My week has been less busy than the past three weeks. Still not sure why I didn’t post more. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a mad woman in the kitchen when I am home. I’ll admit I have a pretty great husband who does a lot the cooking when I’m busy. This week he was pretty busy getting ready for hunting so it was up to me to make dinner a couple of nights. On Tuesday I made spaghetti squash pie. I use and old Weight Watcher Recipe. Basically all you do is bake a spaghetti squash in the oven and use that as your base in stead of pasta. Then I made my own spaghetti sauce with venison (of course). You top the squash with a cup of ricotta cheese blended with one egg, top that with sauce, and top that with mozzarella cheese and bake the whole thing for 20 minutes. Sorry no picture. While I was waiting for the squash to cook I whipped up a batch of Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili ala Gina at The Fitnessista. This is one of my most favorite fall recipes. Best part is, it’s made in the crock pot! I let this simmer all day while I was at work and enjoyed some for dinner. I also had it for lunch today.

One of my work events got canceled due to rain last night so I found myself with some extra time on my hands! I decided to get a jump start on tonight’s dinner by whipping up some meatballs!  I used this recipe I found on Heather’s blog. The only changes I made were using less spinach (because it’s all we had) and baking for only 15 minutes because today I through them in the crock pot with two cans of diced tomatoes, one can of tomato sauce, one can of mushrooms, and some Italian seasoning and let them simmer for half the day. Here they are before I added the sauce!

When Brian got home I boiled up some pasta and dinner was done! Sorry I don’t have a final photo. These were SO GOOD! Very easy too! I don’t usually make meatballs and wasn’t sure how they would work out but they were AWESOME! Definitely a keeper! I also whipped up a batch of home made peanut butter last night too. Whew! It’s amazing what you can accomplish on a unexpected night off!

Besides cooking lots of yummy things I have continued my quest for all things pumpkin. Here’s what I found today while out shopping!

Cinnamon and spiced pumpkin hand wash! This smells really good!

Two kinds of pumpkin beer! The one on the right is Punk’n from the Dogfish Head Brewing Company. I tried this last year and it was my favorite! The other is a pumpkin spiced lager from the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. I haven’t tried it yet! Brian would like you to not the camouflaged floor. I took these pictures in “the man cave” (aka his room) because that’s where the beer fridge is (for obvious reasons). He had already taken the beet down before I remembered I wanted a picture. There were two other pumpkin beer available but since I know I’ll be the only one drinking them (Brian doesn’t like pumpkin isn’t that CRAZY!) I didn’t want to over do it!

I went to two different stores and STILL didn’t find any canned pumpkin! Other bloggers have mentioned that they found pumpkin in their stores but our stores have signs that say they are out due to the national pumpkin shortage! Sad! 

That’s all I have for tonight! I’ll be back tomorrow to post about race preparations! Can’t believe the race is Saturday!

Hey friends! How’s Monday treating you? Mine has been SUPER productive! This is technically a taper week in my running schedule which means I’m only suppose to run two times before the race on Saturday. Since I ran yesterday I decided to get up and do a Group Strength class. I really want to keep up with my strength training this fall and winter! After class I hit up the Co-Op for some fresh fruits and veggies. Then I came home, made breakfast and did my weekly cleaning. I caught up on facebook and some blogs while eating lunch. Then I worked on my grad school paper (again!) and fixed a technical issue I was having with my MP3 player! Whew!

I also got some fun stuff in the mail today! First up…..

Pumpkin spiced tea! I ordered these from ShopCrownhouse. I had never used this site before but I got these two boxes for a pretty reasonable price. They also sell things in bulk. Very quick delivery too, I ordered these on Thursday and they got here today! I immediately tried the Bigelow brand and it is, nice. Not too much pumpkin flavor just some nice spices. I didn’t add any sweetener to it. Maybe that would make it more like the hot pumpkin pie I was envisioning. Still good though!

I also got…

2Toms Sport Shield and Blister Shield. A reader, Kath at Foodiddy, recommended blister powder. When I Google it, this was the only brand it came up with. They also offered the sport shield for chafing. I guess I could have just ordered that but I wanted to try the powder on my feet and need the Sport Shield for other areas that have been chafing. I wish I would have ordered them sooner so I could try them on my long runs but I’m still going to try it for the half marathon. It couldn’t hurt me any more than not using it right?

Yesterday I promised some pictures from the retreat this past weekend. We invited 16 college students to spend 24 hours away from the business of school to take some time for reflection and fellowship. A nice couple from the parish offered to let us use their “cabin” (it’s more like a second home) located on the beautiful Mississippi river.

The view from their dock

We had some free time on Saturday so I led a few of the kids on a little walk. We saw some interesting sites.

Beautiful flowers.

More views of the river.

A blue house with matching flowers.

Recycling at its best.

And some crazy bushmen! 

Even though I was kind of in charge of the retreat and was technically “working” it was a relaxing time away for me too. It was nice to unplug for awhile and not have to think about school and the other crazy business life brings.

Well, I have a few more hours of relaxing time before I have to head into work for a meeting. I think I’ll paint my nails!

Have a great week everyone!

Good Sunday afternoon blog world! How’s your weekend treating you? Watching some football? Making something with pumpkin in it? Running a race? Whatever you’re up to I hope it’s something fun!

After a very successful and restful retreat we put on for the college students Friday night- Saturday night I was well rested and ready for my last long run before the half marathon. I did something last night that really surprised me. I actually listened to what my body needed and ended up making a very smart choice. When I got back from the retreat I thought it would be nice to relax with a glass of wine. While I was unpacking I thought to myself that I was really thirsty and realized I probably didn’t drink enough water while on the retreat and the cabin we were had was pretty dry. I realized that if I opened a bottle of wine that it would not quench my physical thirst and I would probably end up drinking more than I intended and feel pretty awful this morning. So I brewed some decaf tea and chugged some water and felt pretty darn good about myself!

I got plenty of sleep last night and woke up to 50 degree, cloudy, day. I had my standard prerun snack of toast with nutbutter and half a banana. I let that digest for a bit and then headed out. The tricky part about training for this half marathon is that most of my training was done during our VERY HOT summer wearing shorts and a tank top. No that it’s gotten cooler but not quite cold it’s hard to know what to wear! I had some cropped pants on with a short sleeve wicking t-shirt under a long sleeved wicking t-shirt. I was planning on doing a big loop and wasn’t sure what I’d do if I got too hot but I thought I’d give it a try.

The temperature, my clothing, the small amount of traffic, my pre run rituals made for an absolutely PERFECT run! I felt so good the entire time! I didn’t get any blisters, there was not soreness anywhere in my body. I felt really strong! I took a drink of water from a fountain at mile 2, and some sips of Gatorade from my bottle at mile 4. Even as I got to mile 5 I felt awesome and picked up the pace. I took some GU at mile 6 and the last 2 miles were effortless. I did the whole 8 miles in just under 1 hour and 20 minutes.

I think mentally it was good to have such an excellent long run before the race. I know that I will be going much farther on race day (5 miles to be exact) and there are lots of factors that could effect how I feel that day but mentally I feel like I could run FOREVER. A lot of people say running is 90% mental so I am good to go!

After I stretched and showered Brian and I headed to one of our favorite restaurants for breakfast, The Hungry Peddler. I refueled with some eggs, pancakes, and American fries.

I pretty much devoured everything except for maybe half of the potatoes. I was dreaming of these pancakes during my run! Since we ate so late this pretty much counted as breakfast and lunch. We also did some grocery shopping for the week.

Other than that I’ve bee doing laundry and working on my grad school paper (I have 13.5 pages written and need 15-20!) all while burning this yummy candle!

Yes the pumpkin obsession continues! I’m thinking about heading to yoga later but I also feel like I could use a nap before going to church tonight. We’ll see!

Tomorrow I’ll share with you some fun pictures I took on the retreat! Have a great rest to your weekend!

Hey friends! Happy Friday! I didn’t think I’d have a chance to post today but I found a little window of time! Yay!

So this morning’s run was the run that almost didn’t happen. I was still feeling pretty sore on Monday night after my 12 miler on Saturday so I decided I would sleep in rather than get up early on Tuesday to run. I had to teach Zumba at night and wanted to save my energy for that. So, I skipped a 3 mile maintenance run. The rest of the week I was teaching classes so I knew my only chance to run would be early this morning. Well, something woke me up at about 3am and I had a very hard time falling back asleep, I guess Brian did too because he didn’t get up for his run either. When my alarm did go off I hit snooze and snuggled back under the covers. I really did not want to get up! It took a lot of self talk but I finally threw the covers off knowing I would regret it if I skipped it. I decided to head to the University’s track which is just down the street from our house to do my last tempo run before the half marathon. As I neared the track in the early morning darkness I hear shouts of what sounded like a large group of people. When I finally got to the track I saw that the ROTC Army kids were doing some type of physical training exercise. This would be fun! They stretched out for awhile and I started to run. Before I knew it there were about 75 soldiers running with me around the track! It was almost like being in a race! They only completed a few laps before moving on to other more tortuous looking drills like running the stadium steps, doing a wall squat for the entire time it took me to run one lap, and doing touch downs across the football field. Occasionally they would return to the track for a run. It was especially motivating when I had to do my faster tempo 1/4 mile. I didn’t want to look like I was slacking! I wanted “be all that I could be!”

I did 5 miles in about 45 1/2 minutes with and average mile of 9:06! It was one of my best runs in a long time! So glad I got up to do it! Plus watching the ROTC kids was entertaining and made the time fly!

Unfortunately I’m having a little soreness in my right leg. I can’t tell if it’s my hip or my inner thigh. Hopefully a rest day tomorrow at the retreat will heal it, then I’ll do my last long run (8 miles) on Sunday before I do the half marathon next weekend!

That’s all I’ve got for today! See you when I get back!

Well hello there! I’ve missed you blog world! Have you missed me? I don’t know what it’s like where you are but it certainly felt like fall to me! Cool, gray skies, and leaves blowing in the wind!

Sorry I’ve been away from the blog for so long. I don’t like to complain too much about work on my blog but honestly this working 3/4 times at the church is becoming quite challenging. I’m only in the office 3 times a week now so when I’m there I feel like I have a TON of stuff to get ready for but not a lot of time to do it in. It makes time pass pretty quickly but I always feel like I’m falling behind. I’m also there a lot at night and on the weekends for events. Let’s just say, since the end of the August I’ve definitely been working more than 30 hours a week which I guess is expected since I’m such a slacker during the summer! This is just a very busy time of year, I’ve lived through it before, I’ll survive!

I do really miss blogging every day but really there isn’t much to blog about. I’m still running and teaching classes at the Y but I haven’t been cooking anything fun and when I am home I’m more than likely working on my 15-20 page grad school paper or I’m sleeping! I have so many fun fall recipes I want to try like:

Pumpkin Granola

Black Bean Cocoa Quinoa

Pumpkin Scones

I’ve been a little obsessed with all things pumpkin lately. In between teaching classes at the YMCA this morning I had some errands to run so I stopped by Java Detour for my first pumpkin spiced latte of the year! I know that Starbucks supposedly owns the market on this one but I tried three different versions of the PSL last year including Starbuck’s and Java Detour was my favorite! My quest continued for all things pumpkin as I headed to the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner. First I thought I’d look for canned pumpkin. Can you believe they were all out?! There was even a sign that said they wouldn’t have it until October!!!! I continued onward to the tea section. I was commenting to Brian on how I wondered if there was such a thing as pumpkin spiced tea. He suggested I Google it (just like I do everything else!) and sure enough there are a few companies that make it! But alas there was none at the grocery store! I then moved on to the liquor section surely they must have some form of pumpkin beer in stock. Foiled again! Seriously people don’t you know it’s fall! I need my pumpkin! Just kidding I probably saved myself $15! I might have to buy some pumpkin spiced tea on the Internet though.

Although my quest for pumpkin was not completed I’ll settle for a nice glass of wine and dinner with my hubby!

Tomorrow I leave for a weekend retreat for work. I’m sure I won’t post again until Sunday….maybe Saturday night if I’m up to it! See you later!

Hi there! I sure hope you had a lovely Monday! Mine was pretty productive!

I had to get up EXTRA early to teach Group Strength at the Y. I was subbing for someone and didn’t realized when I agreed to sub that I would be running 12 miles the day before! My legs actually didn’t feel that bad today. Sore, yes a little tired too, would I have wanted to run today, no but over all I wasn’t in pain or anything. I disclosed to my class that if it looked likes I was “slacking” on my legs this morning it was due to a long run yesterday. They were cool with it. After class I went down to the Life Center and rolled my legs on a foam roller. It hurt so good! I came home, walked the doggie and ate breakfast. I did some cleaning and practiced some moves for Zumba. Before lunch I decided to do a short yoga podcast just to stretch my legs out. The rest of the day was pretty much mine and I worked on some home work and of course caught up on reading the blogs. It was my turn to make dinner so I did that while Brian worked on putting a new belt on our treadmill. Moving around, stretching, and not sitting on my butt all day really helped me to recover. Not to mention the ice bath and healthy eats yesterday. But I think what really helped me to recover was this….

Cinnamon AND Pumpkin ice cream! AH-MAZING! I casually mentioned to Brian that when I had driven by Ranison’s Ice Cream shop on my way to school that a sign out front said they had pumpkin and cinnamon ice cream. In my quest to consume all things pumpkin I had to try it. He suggested we walked there tonight. I was a little hesitant due my legs but it was the perfect night for a walk and I figured it would help keep my leg muscles loose.  At the last minute I decided to get the cinnamon too and it was the best idea EVER! Tasted like a frozen pumpkin pie! So good! I must have this again before it disappears for the season or it gets too cold for ice cream (is it ever too cold for ice cream?). 

I was considering skipping my morning run  tomorrow  in favor of more recovery time but it is only 3 miles so I’m reconsidering! If so I better start shutting things down so I can get a good night’s sleep!

See you when I see you! It’s going to be a busy couple of days! I have a 15-20 paper due so when I do have time to write I think it should be for that! We’ll see!

Hey there! How’s your Sunday going? I hope it’s a beautiful one!

I’ve been back from my 12 mile run for about an hour and a half and am slowing recovering. Not gonna lie, it was a little rough. I woke up to an absolutely gorgeous morning! I had to be to work at 8am and as I biked there I took a deep breath of the cool crisp fall air and thought about what perfect weather running this was. My job at church today was to greet students and make sure that they filled out a student membership card and picked up a welcome back goodie bad. We did most of this outside so I continued to enjoy the beautiful fall day. I kept imagining how wonderful it would be to run in this weather. By the time we got to the 11:15am Mass it was getting quite warm, I even had to take off my jacket. By the time I got home it was after 12:30pm and very warm. I wouldn’t say it was hot and it definitely wasn’t humid but I knew once I got running I would get hot very quickly seeing as I was running during the heat of the day, but I literally had no other time to do this long run.

I set out with determination but the first four miles were pretty tough. When I circled back to our house I ran inside to fill up another water bottle and a Tupperware with ice water and a wash cloth to cool myself down. I set out for lap two feeling a little better. Actually lap two was pretty good. The final lap was brutal! I ate some gummy bears at about 6 miles which seemed to go over pretty well and gave me a little pep. Before heading off on my final lap I grabbed a water bottle and carried it on my way to the point where I though I would hit 12 miles and left it by a tree. After that it was pretty much all mental. I really did want to quit I was really hot and my feet were really hurting me. But I figured I had come this far I might as well press on. I took a GU at mile 10 but honestly didn’t feel any more or less energetic afterwards. I just kept going until I reached the water fountain (my turn around point). I knew I had less than two miles at this point. I took it easy walking when I needed to, standing in people’s sprinklers when I could. Before I knew it I had hit 12 miles! But I was still pretty far away from my water bottle. I didn’t want to walk that whole way  home so I pumped up Glee’s version of “Don’t Stop Believe’n” and pushed through until I reached the block my water bottle was on. I was pretty glad to be done!

When I got home I did some stretching and then I did something CRAZY! I took and ice bath!

I’ve seen other bloggers use this as a method of recovering after long runs and I knew I wanted to try it after the half marathon so I figured this would be a good time to test it out. I filled the tub with cold water until it covered my legs and then Brian poured in a 10lb bag of ice. It was very cold but it felt good on my legs. I’m not sure if I stayed in there long enough but my feet just got too cold! I really need to recover well as I have 4 full days of teaching at the Y ahead of me. I also drank some chocolate milk and ate a nice healthy meal of a sweet potato, baked beans, and fresh green beans and broccoli from our garden.

Sadly I have to head back to work shortly so my R&R will be cut a little short. Even though it was hard I’m glad I did it. Except for it being hot and my feet really hurting I felt pretty good over all. The reality is it could be this warm in December when I do the Disney half and I’ve bee acclimated to our winter! Should make it interesting. I do really need to figure out how to make it so my feet don’t hurt so much. This next week is sort of a taper week with two shorter runs and then an 8 mile run for the weekend. After today, 8 miles is going to seem like a piece of cake!