Accountability Monday: 11/13/17

Good morning, friends!

I hope you had an awesome weekend! Matthew and I went to Christmas Candylane at Hersheypark (super fun!) and then spent all day yesterday cleaning and decorating our apartment for Christmas. Because we travel so much this time of year, we like to have the decorations up long enough for us to truly enjoy them. 😍

Training
Tuesday: 2.5 miles on the treadmill, 12:05 pace
Thursday: 2.36 miles on the treadmill, 12:43 pace
Saturday: Hip workout- crunches (3 x 10), clamshells with resistance band (3 X 10), glute bridges (3 x 10), with yoga poses in between sets
Sunday: 8 miles, 12:06 pace

With one full week of unofficial Goofy Challenge training under my belt, I gotta say, it feels so damn good to be marathon training again. There's something about having a big goal to work towards that makes me feel strong and focused.

Best Run
Yesterday's miles felt almost effortless. I jammed out to Taylor Swift's newest album, Reputation, and the miles just flew by. And yes, I'm a TS fan, judge all you want. 😜

Bravo Moment
I actually created and wrote out my training plan for the next eight weeks! While I've created training plans for myself in the past, I actually took the time necessary to put it down on paper, not just keeping it all in my brain. I'm really proud of how it turned out- check it out in yesterday's post!

Quote of the Week
I found this Amit Ray quote and it really struck me with how similar the fall season is to marathon training- growth, pain, beauty.

“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that's the way new leaves grow.” - Amit Ray 🍁🍂🍁🍂

A post shared by Sarah (@sparklyrunner) on Nov 12, 2017 at 11:20am PST

Make it a great week, friends!

Accountability Monday: 8/21/17

Good morning, friends! I hope you had a great weekend full of all the things you love!

The end of August always is a very hectic time for me at work- all our students return on Wednesday so this week/weekend is full of planning welcome events and then executing them.

The end of August is also a very celebrative time as Matthew's birthday is tomorrow! And this year's he's celebrating a very special year... he'll be 40 years young in just a few hours :-)

Happy birthday, Matthew!

Training
Tuesday: 30 minutes, 2.42 miles
Friday: Squats, lunges, and dead lifts per this workout from Women's Running- 2 sets of 10 reps each
Saturday: 7 miles on the trail, 1:32:16, 13:10 pace with negative splits

So maybe doing squats and lunges the night before running the longest you've run in three months isn't the greatest idea? Yeah, I've been struggling to sit down/stand up for two days. LOL.

Best Run
Even though my quads were trashed, and sometimes I felt like death, Saturday's long run was still awesome. I've got nine miles on tap for this weekend- but this time I won't do any squats the night before. :-)

Bravo Moment
I ran the last mile of Saturday's long run in my sports bra because it was 80 damn degrees outside and we were running in full sun. I was a little self-conscious as I don't have the typical "runner's body" of someone who might be comfortable running in just a sports bra in public. But like I said, it was so damn hot that I got over my fear and just went for it. And it was much, much cooler without my tank!

Quote of the Week
This really resonated with me this week. Part of being more mindful is accepting where I am, rather than where I "used" to be- and if I'm currently in the midst of the "struggle" then maybe I need to accept it, learn from it, and help it motivate me to be where I want to be.

Don't forget! You can still enter my giveaway to get a FREE race entry to the Runner's World Half & Festival! The giveaway runs until 8/23 and you can tweet every day to get more entries!