Expensive Purchases

Happy Labor Day weekend! Start your weekend off right-with a run! (Or coffee, or a drink-whatever floats your boat.) I wish I could tell you I went out for a nice morning run, but I didn't. I haven't ran all week. Plus side-I think my shin splints are easing up. (Could be a figment of my imagination though.)

I spoke with some co-workers that run a lot regarding any treatments they may know about for the shins, and both said to practice alternating walking on my toes with walking on my heels. This will strengthen and stretch the muscles in the lower leg and help reduce the pain. I will also be focusing more on cross-training and reducing my run to one or two days a week, and only a few miles-no more than two or three. (Cross your fingers....other wise this will no longer be a running blog, right?!)

Thursday and Friday were relatively boring at work-with the exception of Free Coffee Friday in which my boss buys our department Starbucks.

Can't beat Starbucks to kick your weekend off. Oh yea-that clock in the background-my five year anniversary gift. Five more years to go and I get to pick $1000 worth of merchandise from the Best Buy catalog.....love this company!!

But....speaking of Starbucks, has anyone seen the limited edition Swarovski Pumpkin Spice Latte Tumbler? It's not bad....real Swarovski crystals in the cup...and if you reserve yours now, they'll throw in a twenty dollar gift card. All this for $150 (yes, you read that right)-no big deal...I've got nothing better to spend my money on than a cup.

Speaking of purchases-the Hubster met me for lunch on Friday. Always a nice surprise, but then he also brought me a present:

YAY!! I've been staring at these every time we go to Best Buy and I finally have a pair! I researched these and read the reviews and they were one of the best ones on the market. I can't wait to take them to the gym. They can also be used with your phone, which I tried out and it was awesome. The Hubby said I am a good wife and I deserve them. (Read: I am so sweet and patient for listening to his brew talk, day in and day out, that he bought them for me to ensure I stick around. Haha....just kidding.) But really-I LOVE these and was so excited when I opened them.

Anyhow-enough rambling from me. I am off to enjoy the weekend with some family. My Mom and brother are in town from Arizona (and even they say its hot!) and my uncle and his family are coming in from Torrance, CA, and my aunt will all be here today. My bro is smoking some pork shoulder (and it already smells amazing!!) and Mom and I need to head to Costco (and maybe the mall-those Labor Day Sales are already going...) to get some more things for dinner.

I'm not the only one who is happy my Mom and bro are in town-

Luna knows she's only allowed on the bed when Grandma is here.....so she was milking that up last night while Mom and I watched random YouTube videos. Yea, watch out, we get crazy on Friday nights around here.

Hope you have a great weekend! Stay safe!

Questions....

1. What was one of your most expensive, and unnecessary purchases? Do you regret it?

2. What is one thing you want now, if you could splurge on yourself?

Welcome Back

Did you miss me? Okay....don't answer that.

Sorry for going MIA on you guys-I had a pretty bad migraine Sunday night that didn't ease up until yesterday. So, I obviously haven't worked out since Saturday-but at least I did do my easy run of three miles. I also read two books (Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Catch Me by Lisa Gardener). Both were excellent if you are into mysteries and whodunit type books.

But first let's back track to Saturday afternoon. After the hubby finished all the biz-nizzle (okay, that was lame-I will never do that again) we went out to run some errands. First up:

Coffee!

We splurge every weekend and get coffee-Starbucks, It's A Grind, Coffee Bean, etc. If it has caffeine, we're game. (But Coffee Bean has the BEST ice blended drinks!) After we were refreshed-and on a sugar high-the hubster needed new shoes, so we headed over to check some out:

He ended up getting the grey pair. Very nice......

After shoes, it was on to my favorite place, with the worst parking lot ever...Trader Joe's! I love that place....

The Lavash bread is great! We put some pizza sauce (TJ's brand of course) and light mozzarella cheese on it and made healthified thin crust pizza. Yum! (Sorry I didn't take a pic-it was in our tummies too fast!)

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday passed quickly with me spending a lot of time on the sofa watching movies like The Karate Kid and Legally Blonde. 

"Whoever said orange was the new pink, was seriously disturbed."

I finally went back to work and caught up on 150 emails, about a dozen late reports, and joking around with my co-workers. Today is my Dad's 63rd birthday-in his memory I represented the blue and orange:

Go Broncos!!! Love you Dad

After work the hubby and I went out for date night....we hit Lazy Dog Restaurant for Happy Hour, and lucked out because it was still early enough for us to get the lunch portions-perfect size! (Pretty soon we'll be heading to Coco's for the Early Bird special because we're just that old.)

While we didn't get to the gym (YIKES-four days in a row) we did buy the man three Nike Dri-fit shirts from Macy's-after a coupon and the sale they were $10 each. Can't beat that! Maybe now he'll stop wearing his good shirts to the gym to get his stank all over. I swear, the man would wear Armani to do biceps curls and not bat an eye.

We will be resuming our gym duties tomorrow-which will be difficult after all the time off, but you have to start somewhere. It was easier going after we made it two or three weeks with going after work. Now we have to get our groove going again.

Running is reduced to no more than two miles a day because my wonderful shins are rebelling against me. Trying to take it easy and do strength training and cross training in the mean time.

Have a good night!

Happy Birthday to my Dad-always on my mind, forever in my heart. <3

P.S. If you want to check out the brewery info and stay up-to-date on the current events, check out: Electric City Brewery

Questions

Have you had an injury before? How did you adapt your workout?

Which do you prefer: Starbucks, It's a Grind, Coffee Bean, other?

Missed Workout....

I didn't get my workout in Thursday-it was a hectic day. I told myself I would switch Thursday and Friday around-take a rest day Thursday and do Thursday's workout on Friday. What I essentially did was take two rest days. So today-no excuses, especially since tomorrow is Long Run Day. (Cue ominous music!)

I was reading an article about whether or not you need to rest, which included the following ten signs:

1.) If you lost body mass from yesterday (more than 2%)-due to body-fluid fluctuation.
2.) Your resting heart rate is elevated.
3.) You didn't sleep well, or enough
4.) Your pee is dark yellow-indicating signs of dehydration.
5.) Your energy level is run down.
6.) Mood State: You're cranky
7.) Wellness: You're sick
8.) Pain: you're sore or nursing an injury
9.) Your previous workout went poorly
10.) Your oxygen level has dipped (Really?! Who can follow this?)

The article goes on to tell you if you have 0-2 its okay, if you have 2-4 to proceed with caution, 5-6 is a warning, and 7-10 is danger. I counted four reasons out of the ten, but then again I'm almost always tired, sick, and cranky. Ha!

It is interesting how we justify our lack of workout to ourselves. I couldn't just say, "I had a bad day, I need a day off'' and leave it at that. But I will try to, and work on keeping up the training schedule but taking those rest days when I truly feel I need to.

Moving on, last night was pizza night with the In Laws. (Yea, shoot me-missed workout AND pizza....well you're going love it when I say I also had pie!) Eating healthy, let' face it, can be boring and after a week long of veggies and lean meats, sometimes you just have to have junk.

 

 

 

As the night progressed we moved our hang out (along with brewery talk) to the back yard. We enjoyed the sunset,

 



and a booze-hound (haha....get it, get it!?)

 

 

Okay, if you can't be honest on your own blog, where can you? We may have enjoyed a glass (or so) of wine ourselves.

 

 



Hope your Saturday is off to a great start. Me-I slept in, started some laundry, and now completed a blog post. Let's hope the productivity keeps up. Next on the agenda: easy two mile run at home (on the treadmill), finish laundry, get some sun, and read some more of the book I borrowed. With all that, I bet you 90% of those things won't happen! :)

Happy Birthday Jay-Jay! Always in my heart <3

Questions:

What are you Saturday plans?

Which day do you prefer to relax and which day for chores/errands?

P.S. The issues with leaving comments should be fixed-sorry! I won't make you jump through hoops to leave me a message. :)

So Tired....

I think I jinxed our good fortune of a mild summer. We all have been enjoying the warm, sometimes hot, days but it would cool down to somewhere in the 60's at night. I guess someone is sitting there laughing at me because it was like the face of the sun inside my house last night. I was roasting in my own bed, trying to fall asleep without any success. Once we finally turned on the air it was much better!

So needless to say I have been one exhausted puppy today; add to that a larger than normal work load and a headache and I've had a pretty interesting day. But let's start first with breakfast! I've been trying to eat breakfast, which I haven't always done, and if I do it isn't necessarily the healthiest things. Today's breakfast was some Greek yogurt mixed with two spoonfuls of Jell-O pudding mix. I also tossed in some cheerios for a little something extra. Don't laugh til you try it!!

One of the best things about this breakfast is there is no prep work the night before! It is also nice that I can just mix it together at my desk when I get to work. It tricks my brain into thinking I'm eating dessert at six in the morning.



All mixed in and ready to eat!!

The rest of the work day passed in a blur-we were so busy! Regardless of my ailments, I still went to the gym to complete today's workout according to the training plan. It's hard, isn't it, to motivate yourself to do the workout you have planned after a tough day? The last few weeks I've been looking forward to going, but I didn't have that enthusiasm today. I had to keep telling myself I would feel horrible if I missed and luckily today's workout was just thirty minutes of cross training. So, off to the gym we went-me to the elliptical and the hubby chose the stair stepper and stationary bike. I must say I was awfully darn happy when we left-even if I was glad we went. :)

Now it is time for me to unwind, maybe read a little of the book I borrowed from a co-worker (six months ago!) and then go to bed! Yes it is only 6:45pm, and no I don't plan on reading for more than 30 minutes. I'm really just an 80 year old, trapped in the body of a 29 year old wanna be runner. But hey-they say you need rest for muscle recovery. If that is the case, with how much I love sleep you'd think my muscles just recover instantly!

Nighty-night!!




Questions....

How do you motivate yourself to workout after a rough day?

What time do you go to bed?

In the Morning

Lately on my way to work (at the wonderful time of 5:30am) I see more and more people running, some individually, some with a partner, and a few times I've passed a large group of about ten people. Is it just me, or do you get jealous when you see others running in the wee hours of dawn? Actually its not even the time, or the nice cool weather, more so the fact like they're running. I've thought about doing that-waking up an hour earlier to run-but the snooze button always brainwashes me to believe I need more sleep.

But then on my way to work I see this and wonder why I just didn't get up....

 



 

 

 

After my envious drive to work the day progressed like any other. I was off before I knew it and then it was time to hit the gym with the hubby. I have forced convinced him to run the half marathon with me-which is good for me because I can be super competitive and having him with me will force me to push myself harder. Take today at the gym for example- we had an "easy" three miles on the agenda. Easy for the hubster but me, not so much. I'm huffing and puffing half way through and I look over next to me and not only is he running like its cake, he is on his phone! Probably checking email, purchasing equipment for his business, and texting his brew club buddies. Right....and he's training why?! But come to find out he was having Pandora issues-which I don't know if that's better or not. If he can run like that with crappy music, he'll be the next Bolt with good tunes. Ha!

 

Well, speaking of his biz, we're off to visit the building. Just FYI he is opening a brewery so you'll probably (eventually) hear a lot of that talk-and like me, learn way more about beer than you thought possible. One thing I know: You can't make beer with dog.

 

 

 

Good night all!

Shawna

What's In A Name?

As much as I hate to admit it, it was hard to come up with a name for my blog. It seemed like all the "good" names were taken. I asked my husband and my mom for input, and received suggestions like Contrived Runner, Sporadic Runner, and Lazy Runner (yea, thanks Mom). Okay, to my Mom's credit she did say Sophisticated Runner-which makes me wonder how well she knows her own daughter-but it was a compliment nonetheless.

After checking the availability of many different names, most some kind of "runner", I decided that wasn't for me. I'm not clever enough to think of something cute, incorporating a favorite food, mostly because I have too many-and if I did it would be something like "Likes Food Too Much And Forced To Become A Runner".

Mmmmm.....Rice Krispies

After much deliberation (read: an hour) Going Further, Running Farther came to me. I thought about where I am in life and where I'd like to be and realized there is still a lot I want to accomplish, thus the metaphorical distance of Going Further was created. Since that in no way seemed complete Running Farther followed my brainstorm shortly thereafter. I have the desire to run and keep running. A goal and dream I set for myself that only I can achieve.

But enough of that-if you are here to read an experts advice and learn how to get PR's, I assure you this is the wrong blog. If you're here to read about my day-to-day life, my attempts to be healthy, and my (somewhat) daily workouts then welcome!

Happy Reading!
Shawna