Happy Birthday Kyle

Happy birthday to my best friend,

Ollie's favorite papa,

My fishing buddy, even when I only catch vegetation, 

My love.

Happy birthday Kyle. I hope this year is full of oodles of stinky Ollie kisses and many days in your boat slaying fish. I love you.

10th Consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon

I recently registered for the Sioux Falls Half Marathon, and it is the tenth year in a row that I have hit the "register" button. The Sioux Falls Half was my first half marathon, and in September, I'll be running it for the 10th consecutive year!

I'd like to be the person who's run it the most years in a row, and don't even know yet what that record is. I figured I'd get to ten years before I bothered to ask in case it's 40 or something crazy like that. :)

2009

2010

Lifting During Marathon Training

A week or so again, Megan asked if I wanted to come to a yoga sculpt class with her. I wanted to say yes, but realized that midway through my marathon training cycle probably wasn't the best time to start strength training. So I declined, but I really want to add it in to my routine.

For those of you who supplement your running with strength training, what sort of routine do you follow?

Are you able to maintain the same level of running when you're strength training?

When should I start?

I'm thinking I'll start after I'm semi recovered from Bemidji and hope that it's something I can maintain during regular training. In doing my daily glute strengthening exercises, I'm still noticing more weakness in one side than the other, so I'd like to do some targeted exercises to make them equal out.

Any other advice???

Weekly Reads: Everything Leads to You

Everything Leads to You is the newest book by Nina LaCour. I had read, and enjoyed Disenchantments, so I was excited to pick this one up as well. Both books I've read by LaCour have focused on that summer post-high school, pre-rest of your life, and I think that's such a great time for a YA book. Teens look at that summer as a summer of greatness, and the characters in her books always seem to excel at that.

Everything Leads to You is a love story that's wrapped up in a mystery. Her writing style is so magical that you will see every movie scene described in the book as if you were viewing it on film, and you will feel like you're falling in love for the very first time.

Just a beautiful book.

My rating: 5 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of—and behind—the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.
 
A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
 
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 8

I started off the week, Monday with a hilly run. It was supposed to be 8 miles, but I was really having troubles breathing. I finally realized that I had a rib out of place that was causing my breathing to be so laborious. Ugh.

I had Kyle crack my back Monday night and took my first full breath of air in days. It was magical.

Tuesday I was all set to race a 5k. Except we all know that turned out to be a 3k. I did some warm up and cool down mileage to get my mileage to 6+ miles for the day.

And then Wednesday I woke up with some insane hamstring tightness in my left leg. Because you shouldn't race a 2 mile cross country race in the middle of marathon training. Lesson learned. I rested, foam rolled, ibuprofened, stretched.

And repeat Thursday.

Friday I was all set to do 8 miles because my leg finally felt ok. Yes, I am probably overly cautious at the mere possibility of injury, but being on again/off again injured for 4+ years will do that to a runner! I was all ready to go, water bottle in hand, glute and hip stretches and strengthening done, and out the door when my stomach decided it was NOT happy. I figured it would pass, but I was pretty miserable the rest of the night.

Sunday was supposed to be my long run day, but magically Kyle had the day off from work, so I decided that sleeping in and spending the day with him was more important than a long run. I hope I don't kick myself for that decision on October 11th, but man, sometimes life trumps running

The good news is that my legs should be amazingly fresh this week, so I should be ready to knock some mileage out of the park! And next week is my half marathon, or B goal race of this cycle, so there's no opportunity to shuffle around training runs. 

Race Weekend Dibs

Chelsea and I are training for a marathon a week apart this fall. This spring we had the same half marathon goals and several half marathon attempts. Being a fellow Packers fan, she sent me a message on twitter recently asking if I was planning on running the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon.

Well. Hmm....

I guess I was throwing around my race intentions for Fall 2015, why not think about Spring 2015?

After Krista ran her killer race at Grandma's, I immediately wanted to run Duluth in 2015. Ok, I REALLY wanted to run Grandma's this past spring, but knew I wasn't going to be marathon ready, so I didn't. Even though I REALLY wanted to. Did I mention I REALLY wanted to??

Duluth is like a trillion miles from South Dakota.

If I did Grandma's, Green Bay would be a perfect half marathon race predictor for marathon race day. But that would be an additional 16 hours of driving, total. Uff.

But my favorite thing ever is fun race weekends with runner friends. And despite having never met Chelsea, she *is* one of my running friends, as weird as that may be.

So I think I'm going to try really hard to make Green Bay work. If I can snag a really cheap flight to Green Bay or Duluth, I think I can handle the drive for the other one.

So now's your chance to convince me to come on a race weekend with you. And if you're Danielle trying to get me to come to Maine, still, please accompany your convincing with an airfare under $500. <3

August Goals

August Goals

• Run enough miles to have my 4th or 5th highest mileage month.
• Run two long runs as scheduled.
• Run all three speed sessions as scheduled. 
• Run one of my fastest half marathons in Fargo (please be cool weather, please be cool weather)
• Watch 2 Oscar Best Picture Nominees.
• Every other day core work, hip stretches, and drills.
• 1 buddy run or ride a week.
• 2 20+ mile bike rides.
• Make 2 new meals using my veggie box ingredients.
• Get 3-5 pounds closer to my racing weight. 
• Food as fuel!