Tag Archives: summer running

Thursday Things

Remember how almost a year ago I got to see my all time favorite band for the second time and it was literally the best thing ever and I was the happiest camper that ever was?!?!? Yeah, me too.

#throwbackthursday

Yeah that was super-duper irrelevant, but I shared that on Instagram this morning so I thought why not share it here as well. 😉

Anyway, this week has been a little hard so far, half marathon training-wise. I had a rest day on Monday, followed by an interval session on Tuesday. That went REALLY well and I had a blast doing it. Probably because it was raining and a little bit cooler that day. And I also really like interval work haha. But after that everything had been a bit of a struggle. I’ve just been really tired this week (menstruating does that to me sometimes) and have been struggling to get up and moving in the mornings. Plus after the rain on Tuesday it got really hot, humid, and gross out again. And we’ve been getting more air quality alerts which really sucks. I was hoping we were done with heat and air quality warnings, but obviously we are not. I’m really hoping that August ends up being our last really hot month, but September can still be pretty warm too. I guess we’ll have to wait and see though.

Now that being said, I’ve still been sticking to my training plan and getting shit done!! Just a little more slowly this week. 😉 The plan for today was an easy 5 miler. I started out on the road but I didn’t wake up early enough this morning, so at about 3 miles in it was 80 degrees with 90% humidity, sunny, and the air quality was really bad. So I gave up finishing my run outside and completed it on the treadmill instead. Really glad I have that option now, otherwise this run would have been cut short! 🙂 I’ve got a hill workout on the scheduled for tomorrow and I still haven’t decided if I want to try to do it outside or just do the whole thing on the treadmill. It’s supposed to be pretty gross out tomorrow as well…

Anyway, after my run this morning I was pretty busy! I spent the rest of the morning cleaning EVERYTHING haha. I did a bunch of laundry, watered and tended to the garden, cleaned both of my rabbits’ cages which is a time-consuming process for various reasons, completely cleaned and took every inch of the room they live in, and then kinda spot cleaned the rest of the floor through out the house. Oh and periodically checking on the chickens and giving them ice, since they seem to hate this weather just as much as I do. After all of that was taken care of I showered, ate lunch, and sat down to read for about an hour because I felt like I needed a bit of a break after all of that haha. But at around 2 pm I was back at it again, this time doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, and then putting away laundry. Usually I don’t enjoy doing chores around the house, but today I really was for some reason so I was trying to take advantage of that. 😉

Oh and I’ve been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with my little push up challenge! Las night I thought I had forgotten to do them during the day, but when I checked the scheduled yesterday was actually a rest day so that worked out haha. I did my 7 push ups for today later in the afternoon after my cleaning frenzy. I did all 7 on my toes which I was pretty darn proud of! I’m still not able to go down all the way, but before 5 was the most I could do on my toes and I felt like I was dying doing them. Now it’s still hard, but I feel pretty good doing them! Haha and maybe by the time this challenge is over my push ups wont look so half assed. 😉

Well, that pretty much sums up what I’ve done today though. Like I said, tomorrow I’ve got a hill workout to do, and probably a little bit of strength work too. And of course Saturday is my long run day. Then Saturday evening Luke and I are going to a housewarming party. I’m not sure who is all going to be there but the only people I’ll know are the couple who are throwing the party and Luke. Not exactly an introverts idea of a good time haha. Not gonna lie, I’m already looking forward to my rest day on Sunday. I’m already worn out just thinking about all of that! 😉 But I’ve been pushing through and getting it done! I’m so so so very ready for fall to get here, but I can’t deny that all of these hard summer miles aren’t helpful. They make running in the colder months seem so much easier and feel that much more enjoyable. Summer miles bring fall smiles!

All righty then! That is all from me for now!

How’s your summer running been going? Are you currently training for anything? Do you like running in the warmer months or the colder months better and why? Apparently I’m just full of questions today! But I would really like to know your answers! 🙂

Happy Friday eve!! I hope your week has been good so far!

~Ashley

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Weekly Recap: July 30th – August 5th, 2018

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Another great week of training is in the bag!

I did my last run of the week today and that officially wraps up week two of training for Operation Two Half Marathons In Two Days. Obviously I’m not very far into my training, but at this point I’m feeling great physically and mentally! So lets get right into this week’s recap! 🙂

Monday:

3 easy miles

Kicked off the week with a nice and easy 3 miler. We had some pretty nice weather earlier this week and it was in the high 60’s when I did this run on Monday morning. It was pretty darn nice!

Tuesday:

3 miles, intervals
20 minutes of Pilates

Intervals! Yay!! Haha so it’s actually been a hot minute since I’ve done a real, actual interval workout so this one was pretty tough! My paces were a little slower than I would have liked, but like I said, it’s been a while. Plus by Tuesday it was starting to get a little more hot out again, so I’m not too worried about it. I’m still happy with what I got done! Followed my run with 20 minutes of Pilates because I’m working on that strength! All in all pretty happy with the work I put in on Tuesday.

Wednesday

30 minutes of strength training

Day off from running but still put in some work! During my little strength session I kinda came to grips with the fact that I avoid push ups at all costs. They’re hard and I hate them haha. But since I’m trying to build strength through my entire body I figured maybe I should work on some of my weaknesses and this seemed like a good place to start, especially since it was the first day of August. So I decided to do a push up challenge thing for the month of August. Just to force myself to do them and hopefully at least get a little bit better at them. So we shall see how that goes.

Thursday:

3 easy miles

Just another easy 3 miler followed by day two of my push up challenge! Haha like I said, I’m really bad at push ups. I can’t really go down all that far, but I still accomplished 4 push ups on my toes instead of on my knees, so I’ll take it!

Friday:

rest day

Luke and I had a pretty busy day on Friday! We had errands to run, groceries to buy, and then we made a jar of tomato sauce, 2 jars of strawberry jam, and a jar of blueberry jam. That was a lot of fun. You can read more about that here, if you’re interested! 🙂

Saturday:

8 miles
30 minutes of yoga

Longer run #1 done for the weekend!!! Since I’m going to be running back to back half’s I figure that means I need to do at least a few back to back long-ish runs. So that was my plan for this weekend. 🙂

Saturday’s long run was relatively uneventful. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible. I was treated to a really pretty sunrise though, so that was nice. 🙂 Afterwards I spent a good majority of the day resting, re-hydrating, and mentally preparing to go again on Sunday. I don’t think I’ve ever run the day after a long run before, so this is a brand new experience for me.

Sunday:

5 miles

Well, mission accomplished!! I followed yesterday’s long run with a medium long run today and I didn’t die! 😉 Haha my legs were kinda tired, but other than that I felt pretty great! During the first mile-ish I was viciously assaulted with lots of love by a black lab who snuck out of the door while his owner was walking outside. I didn’t see it but all of a sudden I heard the unmistakable sound of a dog running at full speed right at me, so I turned to look, saw him coming, and had time to say “oh shit,” before he was right on me. Luckily he was just friendly and wanted love. But had he not been that could have ended badly for me. I had very little time to react before he got to me. Haha he was a very speedy boy. But his owner ran after him and apologized and since nothing bad happened I told him it was all good and that I love dogs. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like to stop during my runs to pet dogs, haha this one just kinda scared me at first!

Anyway, after my run I watered the garden, fed the chickens and cleaned up around their coop, and then did a few more chores around the house. After that I was pretty tired and spent most of the day focusing on re-hydrating and resting. Luckily tomorrow is a rest day. I’m really looking forward to that haha.

Total Weekly Mileage: 22

Starting to move onward and upward! So far my half marathon training is going really well and I hope that continues! I’m currently feeling very positive about training and my upcoming half’s!! 🙂 Oh and I’ve also been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with this push up challenge so far! I can’t actually go down very far yet, but I’ve been doing them all on my toes and that’s a total win for me! Pretty stoked about that haha.

Anyway, I hope you’ve had a great weekend!!

Until next time,

~Ashley

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July Miles And Goal Check In

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Well hello there, August! I’m very glad that you’re the last full month of summer, and I sure hope the hot weather leaves when you do! 😉 Actually the weather hasn’t been too bad here lately! That’s supposed to change next week though. Apparently the really hot weather is coming back. Boo…

Anyway, didn’t do too bad mileage wise, considering that this month I had two weeks where I did little to no running. One week because of the heat wave and another because of our family vacation. Other than that though, I had a pretty good month! Ended up with 42.48 miles for the month and kicked off my training for Operation Two Half Marathons In Two Days.

Haha and now that that’s in full swing I definitely don’t see my weekly or monthly mileage going down much. Well, as long as I can stay healthy and injury free. *Knock on wood.* I’m not typically good at that. 😂

Anyway, I did pretty good with my other goals as well. Still did pretty decent with my step goal even with the heat wave and being on vacation. Haha but being right on that river really helped with the whole walking thing while we were on vacation. 😉 I also managed to keep up pretty well with my training journal, which was an improvement over last month. 😄

Welp, I guess that about covers it! Kinda short, sweet, and to the point this month. 😂 I hope you have a great August!!

~Ashley

First Long Run Of Half Marathon Training Is Done!!

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It wasn’t all that long of a run, only 8 miles. But that’s what I kept telling myself last night and this morning and I’m pretty sure that’s how I ended up getting through it ahahaha. “It’s only 8 miles. It’s only 8 miles. It’s only 8 miles.” After saying it enough times it really did feel like “only” 8 miles. 😉

Which is great! Because yesterday Luke and I helped some of our friends move. We actually only took one truckload of stuff from their old house to their new house and after we unloaded that into their new garage, got a tour of the house, and then sat out on their deck and drank some beer for a little bit, we went out for dinner. I don’t remember what the place was called (I think it was named after a famous chef or something? I’m not sure…) but it was pretty good! I got their mac and cheese (because carb loading. Duh! 😉 😉 😉 ) and it was pretty awesome! It had ham, bacon, and green onions in it. Yum! Everyone else got another drink but not me. I didn’t want to risk feeling too bad the next day haha. And of course Luke had to make fun of me because apparently you can’t have fun at a dinner with friends unless you’re drinking alcohol? 🙄 Whatever. He obviously doesn’t get why this is so important to me. But I mean, running is kind of a crazy sport and makes us do some weird things, so I can kind of understand that.

Anyway, after dinner we ordered a few desserts to go and then were going to walk around and explore the area we were in for a little bit, so Luke and I got coffee at the most fancy Starbucks I’ve ever been in ever. Haha it was pretty crazy! But after walking around for a few minutes we decided to call it a night and just hang out another time. I had a few sips of my coffee, but I knew if I drank the whole thing right before we went home and went to bed that I’d never sleep, so I just saved it instead. 🙂

I was very happy with my decision not to drink my coffee when I got up this morning. First off, I was able to get to sleep, which is pretty much necessary for me to function. Haha I don’t do well on minimal amounts of sleep. And second, I had a delicious and already made coffee waiting for me in the fridge. All I had to do was warm it up! Obviously it wasn’t as good as fresh coffee, but I’m not seeing why re-heated up coffee gets such a bad rap. It was still pretty good!

Getting out of bed was still a little bit hard this morning. We were out a little later than we had thought we’d be last night and like I said, I don’t function well when I don’t get enough sleep. Haha I woke up a little later than I would have liked, so I ended up getting around 7 hours which isn’t bad, but I still would have and always prefer to get 8 hours of sleep. That seems to be just the right amount for me. But anyway, I got up drank my re-heated coffee and ate the rest of my mac and cheese from last night. Breakfast of champions, obviously. 🙂 Then I went out and got my run done!

Since I got up later than I’d have liked I got outside on the road a little after 8 am. That’s actually the time I really like to run pretty much any time of the year that is not summer. In the summer I like to get up and out the door before the sun has been out for too long. But I got really lucky today and it was in the low 70’s and cloudy when I started my run, so not bad!!

All in all it was a relatively uneventful run. For a little bit it looked like I might get rained on and I was really hoping that I would, but it never happened. In fact, the sun actually came out when I had about 1.5 miles left to go and that really started to warm things up, which made the going a little bit rough, but I still got it done!

And with that my first week of training for Operation Two Half Marathons In Two Days is pretty much done! I’ve got a rest day tomorrow and then it’s on to week 2!

I’m actually pretty surprised by how well this week has gone for me, considering that last week we were in Branson on vacation and I did zero running while we were there haha. Obviously that’s a pleasant surprise though! I’ve still got 15 more weeks to go and I know they wont all be smooth sailing, but I’m hoping that a lot of them end up as good as this week was! 🙂

But anyway, that’s all I’ve got for today! I hope you’ve had a super Saturday and have a great rest of the weekend!

~Ashley

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Half Marathon Training W1D3

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Oh man, this morning was rough!

Luke plays softball on his company’s league on Tuesday’s. They’re always double headers and each game lasts about an hour. Which is no big deal. But last night his first game started at 8:30 pm, so we were at the softball fields until 10:30 and didn’t get to bed until well after 11 that night. That’s really not that big of an issue. I just turn into a big baby when I don’t get enough sleep, and I’m still getting up earlier than usual to beat the summer heat.

Plus I’m just feeling kinda worn out from my runs on Monday and Tuesday. But I knew that was coming and that this week would be kinda tough. I’m hoping if I just stick it out that next week will be better. It anyway, getting out of bed this morning was hard. Eating breakfast and getting dressed was hard. Stepping out the door and starting my Garmin was hard. But after that things got considerably easier. 😉

The plan for today was 5 easy miles and that’s what I did! Nothing all too exciting to report from this run either, but honestly that’s not a bad thing! I’d rather have a decent, uneventful run, than a bad, exciting run haha. But this run did get my blood moving, my muscles working, and woke me up a little, which I definitely needed! So far this week I’ve felt tired before my runs and then awake and energized afterwards, so that’s been a nice little bonus. 🙂

Oh and during today’s run I notice that my legs are looking more and more like “runner’s” legs. They’re definitely getting slimmer, more muscle definition, and my quads are getting pretty big! I wish I would have thought to take a “before” photo of them, because obviously I can see the changes, but otherwise it’s kind of hard to know that anythings different. But I’ll definitely be saving the photo above so I’ll have something to compare to if I notice any more changes. I know I’ve been getting stronger, but I just think it’s cool to actually be able to see the physical changes in my body. For many years I was very focused on just losing weight and nothing else. I didn’t care how strong I was, that I could run a half marathon, or that my body was capable of all sorts of amazing things. Now I’m not all too concerned about what the scale says and am more exciting to see and feel that I’m getting stronger, more capable, and hopefully more injury resistant haha. 😉

Anyway, who else runs for second breakfast?!? I know I sure do!! It’s like, 90% of the reason why I’m willing to wake up early and go run. #breakfastfoodisthebestfood 😉 Basically I’m just a hobbit. I’m always eating haha. I mean, I legit eat two breakfasts on most day’s that I run and its great. I usually also always have food on me. Last night before Luke’s softball games I was kind of upset that I had forgotten to wash my grapes earlier in the day, so the only snack I had out there at the softball fields for like 2 hours was a banana. That was a bummer and I was pretty hungry by the time we got home. And it’s not like I didn’t have a filling dinner or anything. I’m just always hungry. 😂

So after I was satisfied with my second breakfast I took Lily for a short little walk, watered the garden and picked some more tomatoes, along with a little watermelon. Then I did some laundry, loaded, ran, and unloaded the dishwasher, vacuumed and just picked up the house in general, and then finally showered, ate lunch, and then sat down to work on a few blog posts.

Later in the afternoon I did about 30 minutes of yoga, and holy cow I didn’t realize how tight I was until I did! Haha it was pretty bad! But at least I took the time to do something about it and I ended up feeling pretty great afterwards so yay for that! 🙂 After that I just kinda spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out and waiting for Luke to get home from work. He should be home in about half an hour and we might go out hunting for Pokemon when he does. 😉

But that’s all for now! I feel like I’ve had a very successful day half marathon training, but I’m pretty darn excited that tomorrow is a cross training day so I don’t have to get up early to run haha.

Happy hump day!!

~Ashley

Half Marathon Training W1D2

Branson Adventures: Day 3

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Today was more laid back than yesterday. Good thing too, because we were up late last night!! We had a lot of fun though. After we got back to the cabins from the pizza buffet/arcade thing we hung out outside for a little bit and played corn hole in the dark haha.

But like I said, today was a more chill day. We slept in a little (if you can consider 8 am sleeping in 😉) and in the morning Luke and one of his brothers went to Walmart to pick up a few things, so I hung out with their mom, my brother-in-law’s girlfriend and her two kids for a while. We mostly just sat on the porch of one of the cabins and talked. It was nice. 😊

Luke and my brother-in-law ended up being gone for a lot longer than I thought they would be, but once the finally did get back they had a bunch of fishing gear. My brother-in-law went somewhere to do something with his girlfriend since today is their first anniversary, but no one else really had anything planned for today so Luke figured we could do a little bit of fishing. So he got our poles all ready and then we headed down to the river.

Today the water was a little higher and the current was a little faster, so wading across and then walking to the spot we swam at the first day we were here was a bit difficult, but one we got to that spot the water was much more calm.

After we cast out our lines it don’t take us very long to catch a couple of bluegill! I got one first and a few minutes after that Luke’s brother got one too! But the both swallowed the hooks and since we were just planning to catch and release we didn’t want to kill anymore fish like that, so we switched to bigger hooks (haha I know none of this is very technical. Luke’s the big fisher, not me, I prefer deer hunting). After that the bluegill were able to just pull our bait right off the hooks, but eventually Luke ended up catching a few more.

After a while I started to get hungry, so I walked back up the the cabins to eat lunch and kinda cool off in the air conditioning for a little bit. But eventually I did go back out and we all ended up catching a good amount of fish! Luke ended up with 15, his brother got 13, and I had 7. Not bad considering they were out longer than me. 😉 I also ended up catching the biggest and smallest bluegill (which was a good majority of what we caught), Luke’s brother caught a catfish, and Luke caught a bass. I’d say we had a good day! But then around 3:30 pm it started to get really hot and the fish stopped biting, so we walked back up to the cabins, changed out of our swimming/fishing gear, and then went to a Nike outlet store because we couldn’t find anything thing else we really wanted to do.

So the Nike outlet store was basically heaven haha. So. Much. Running gear!!! And most of it was half price!! Luke and I are on a super tight budget, but I still got a sweet pair of sweat pants and the absolute BEST pair of Free’s ever! Seriously, I’ve wanted these shoes FOREVER and I finally got them for exactly half off. Pretty sweet deal! 😄

After I got my absolutely gorgeous new shoes, that I also desperately needed because my other pair of Free’s that I’m currently running in are completely worn out, we beaded back to the cabins with the intent to do some more fishing, bust some asshole stole our fishing poles and tackle box! WTF?!?! They were just shitty, cheap, Walmart fishing poles so they weren’t worth anything, but I had a super old leathermens tool that my now deceased grandpa gave me for my 16th birthday (it was a whole thing and it meant a lot to me) and the case for it that my dad handmade for me. So I’m super bummed out about that. The fishing poles are replaceable, that tool is not. ☹️

So we spent the rest of the evening coming up with crazy ways to try to figure out how to get it back. Unfortunately that’s probably not gonna happened…

Anyway, we’re currently just chilling on the porch talking. I hope you had a good day!!

~Ashley

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