Anniversary Time

Yep, we became Mr. and Mrs. 7 years ago yesterday.  We didn't do a very good job planning ahead, but at the last minute decided to go out for brunch instead of dinner.  Dinner is a crazy time with 2 small children, so we figured it was just easier to have someone watch them during the day.  We did a family run in the morning, and then showered and were off to one of our favorite places from our old neighborhood. 
We hadn't been to Wahoo for brunch yet, but the menu looked good and they offer the dinner menu too, so we figured we would both be happy (I love brunch btw).  I had the Eggs Benedict with sauteed spinach and the hubs had Parm crusted chicken.  I had the hashbrown casserole as my side and hubs had the cheddar cheese grits.  Both were very good.  Since it was our anniversary, we decided to have a morning cocktail (well 12:30pm here in the ATL) and we were given prosecco from the restaurant.  For someone who has never been a big drinker and hadn't had a drink in so long from being pregnant and breastfeeding, those drinks went straight to my head. 

We ended the day with a family dinner at home and it was wonderful.  The kids went off to bed and we shared some ice cream with extra chocolate chips (he knows what I like).

Our present to each other is going to be tickets to a tennis tournament coming to Atlanta in July.  We missed the tournament last year due to a family wedding, so I am very excited to go this year. 

Running updates and other tidbits

I don't have much to report. I have been chugging along. My legs are starting to feel heavy during parts of the week. What do you do when you have heavy legs? Do you think it means my legs aren't strong enough yet? I have been trying to add squats, step ups and hamstring exercises to gain more leg muscle. Do you think it will help? It may just be that i am doing too much these days. Yoga hasn't happened in a couple of weeks. It has been replaced with tennis (mixed doubles). Hubby joined this team last season and had so much fun that he insisted I join now that I don't have a little person inside me. I have to say I was reluctant. I have had some bad experiences the past few seasons with tennis and the time commitment is tough when you have small children. But I am having fun and I am 2-0 so that helps too. I wonder if I am trying to do too much too fast. I just want to be ready for the fall racing season. This week my 30 minute HIIT was just an easy 3 mile run while increasing the speed a little every 0.5 mile. Below is my workouts from this past week. I will be taking it easy some this week since the Peachtree is next Monday.

Monday - 100 squats while holding little A, 5 x 10 push ups
Tuesday - 5 mile run with JS on a hot Tuesday morning, aka sweaty and tiring
Wednesday - 3 mile run on mill (9 min mile average)
Thursday - rest
Friday - 5 mile run on mill, 1 mile warm up, 0.75 mile @ 7.2mph followed by 0.25 mile recovery @ 6.5mph, repeated 4 times., planks, step-ups, hamstring exercises
Saturday - 1.75 hours of mixed doubles tennis, I won!
Sunday - 6.15 mile run (4.15 with JS)

Total miles - 19 miles

What are your thoughts? Should I be switching it up more? Advice?

Other stuff
I am down another pound and am less than 3 lbs away from my pre-preg weight. Like I said before, I am slowing down my weight loss with these last few pounds. I am not in a huge hurry and I have worked hard to lose the first 20 pounds quickly. I also know these last few pounds are vanity pounds anyway, although I would love for my tummy to tighten up faster but I know that will take time.

I am in a dinner rut. Summer in the south means it's so hot, I don't feel like cooking much. What do you cook a lot in the summer? Keep in my mind I have 2 kids and the hubs is not home for dinner. He eats later.

Some days are like that, even in Australia

Well this has a couple of meanings.  Yesterday, overall, was just a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day.  I hadn't planned on running or even working out, and if I had, probably would have been a better day.  I won't bore you with the details of yesterday, but it wasn't fun for me at all.

The other part of no good, very bad days for me includes my runs.  Obviously, not every run can be awesome or amazing or a PR.  Last Saturday was the first very bad run for me since little A was born.  I didn't drink enough water the Friday before (after running a 5 mile tempo run on the mill when the temperature was in the mid 70's in my house) and then I didn't eat particularly well (birthday party which included salad, pizza, cake and ice cream, and half a beer).  Saturday morning rolled up on me, and I felt awful.  I think I was dehydrated when I woke up.  Well I had already told myself I was doing 7 miles, and my father-in-law would be joining me so I had to go.  We also didn't leave the house until 9:30am.  Yep, it was H-O-T, hot out! 

We survived but not by much.  I vowed to drink more that day, but I think it took me a couple days to recover from the heat. 

Then, there was today.  My legs were feeling heavy yesterday from doing some squats the day before, and they still felt heavy this morning.  I put little A down for his morning nap and then head for the mill upstairs.  I started with my 1 mile warm-up (6.3 mph currently) and then bumped it up to 7.0 after that.  Now, I was interrupted by little H a couple of times so I had to stop and get off to help/assist her.  That didn't help.  I told myself at one point, if you are not in it, then don't finish it.  I didn't want to resent runnning.  So that was a big step for me.  I am so into schedules, and today was supposed to be a 5 mile tempo run.  I ended up finishing and did parts of the run at my tempo pace, just not the whole time like I had planned.  My time was 45 seconds off of last weeks's run, so it wasn't a total wash, but I was happy I finished. 

Of course, knowing that I wasn't feeling it today may hinder my weekend run some.  We will see.  But tennis has started again and I have already played twice this week and am playing tomorrow.  Wish me luck!!

This week's workouts:

Monday - Tennis practice
Tuesday - 5.04 mile easy run with the JS (except for mil2, this was a good run), squats, P90X ab ripper, push-ups (5x10)
Wednesday - 30 minute HIIT on the mill
Thursday - Rest (first since last Thursday)
Friday - 5 mile run (kind of a tempo run)
Saturday - Mixed doubles tennis match
Sunday - ??? Maybe a light run

4 Mile Race Recap

Yep, 12 weeks pp and I finished in the top 3 of my age group. Yes it was a small race but I was happy with my time. My goal was 34 minutes and I finished in 32:55 (8:13 minute pace).

Full race recap
I got out of bed 2 minutes before my alarm went off.  We been out to dinner the night before and both kids went to bed late, so little A even slept through the night.  While I was brushing my teeth, little A woke up so I had to go in there and feed him a little.  I had not planned on that, so I felt like I was behind.  I went downstairs to get ready and pump.  I got a bottle ready for the hubs, grabbed my pre-race breakfast (almond butter on one slice of whole wheat bread and some water) and I was off.  I was already on edge because I was about 10 minutes later leaving than I wanted.  I picked up my dad and we were off to the race.  It was not far from his house, so that was nice.  We got there, picked up our numbers and stretched a little.  We did a lot of small talk.  We were debating about our times.  My dad was making it very easy for him to make his time.  :)

We went up to the starting line and I was up front.  It was a small race, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I have a tendency of going out too fast.  The race started and I was off.  I had my Garmin with me in case they didn't have the mile markers marked.  My biggest problem right now is that I don't know how fast I am going and I don't want to consistently look at my watch to see my pace.  I run a lot with the jogging stroller and I am much slower with that and there are so many hills in my neighborhood so I don't know my pace.  On the mill, I typically do sprints and walking (plan to incorporate some tempo runs on a regular basis now).  My first mile was 7:45.  Yikes a little fast since I was planning on a 8:30 minute mile.  I knew I was in trouble.  There were a lot of rolling hills so that made it difficult by the end.  My next mile was better on time with an 8:16.  Unfortunately, mile 3 had a lot of hills and it was getting very hot.  I am a warm weather person who does not sweat a lot and I was feeling the heat so people must have been dying.  I had a bad mile at 8:48.  :(  I knew I had to pick it up on the last mile and finish strong for myself.  I told myself at 3.5 miles I would start passing people.  Well it wasn't until 3.66 that I looked at my watch and saw how close I was to the finish.  I went the hill with perseverance.  From there, I really started to take off.  I finished strong with a final mile at 8:06 and finished just under 33 minutes.  I was pretty impressed.  I had originially thought I would strive for an 8:15 minute mile (33 minutes total) because 8:13 is my average the my PR at the half marathon.  I thought that might be too much to ask for being only 12 weeks pp.  I am pleased with my time and because it was first time at the 4 mile race, it's an instant PR for me!  Yeah!!!

My dad finished strong as well and then I made him wait around for the awards since I thought I might have gotten one.  I placed 3rd in my age group.  I am feeling pretty good with my running so far and can't wait for the fall.

Stats:Time: 32:55
Pace: 8:13/mi
Overall: 52/272
Div: 3/10

The time waster and other updates

So it's Saturday morning and the little guy is sleeping in his crib, the little lady is with her grandmother and the hubs is playing tennis. The house is quiet and what am I doing . . . Playing with my new toy.. Yep I got an iPad. I have to say that I really like it so far. If you have any favorite apps please post a comment.

My race is tomorrow so today I will just relax and prep for it. This will include some foam rolling. I know it's not advised before a race but my hamstrings are very tight after a tempo run on Thursday.

The little guy turned 12 weeks on Thursday and I am 4 lb away from my pre-preg weight. That is the great thing about hot summers in the south, I don't have a big appetite because I am drinking so much water and sweating so much during workouts.

I will update you on the race tomorrow. It's a small race so I am hoping to do well. I hope I don't get my hopes up too much.