Where's the Beach?

I know that Monday's are typically the blogging recap day, but maybe I'm just not ready to reminisce about the weekend that went by way too quickly just yet. Since a lot of my weekend was spent training, I suppose I could just squeak by with a Training Tuesday post though right? I mean, if I'm going of a theme. Saturday I set out for my longest run today date, 16 miles. With marathon training, I know it's a PDR that won't stand for too long. That kind of frightens me, I won't lie. I was a little nervous about the run. My previous PDR was 14.5 miles. I just wasn't certain how my body would hold up. And, while it was a bit cooler, upper 60s, the humidity was certainly making the air feel heavier and the sun was out. In other words, a lot warmer than I would have preferred. I knew that huge portions of the River Trail would be blocked off for the Big Dam Bridge 100 Cycling Tour. What I hadn't counted on was another walk/run that was happening and b

Once upon a time not too long ago (in fact when I first started this blog just 5 years ago), I did not consider myself a runner. I ran. It was typically for exercise purposes only. It was what I considered distances too short for a "real" runner. Even after I fell in love with running and found myself upping the distances, I still refused to say, "I'm a runner." Somehow I thought it was a term reserved for a special group, people who had been running much longer, people who raced often, people who seemed more dedicated somehow. Just ... other runners basically. I didn't feel that I knew all the lingo that I really walked the walk. I felt like an outsider. Honestly, I don't remember when I finally got my head out of my ass and realized that I was, in fact, a runner. I think that there was this weird notion that if I finally admitted it, then there was no going back (there kind of isn't), so what if I changed my mind suddenly (which I didn't

Marcia at Marcia's Healthy Slice frequently does Runfession Posts. They are always fun to read, and I often find myself nodding along in agreement. Now that I'm marathon training, I'm finding myself often scared. My thoughts often end up turning to the what-ifs, the self-doubts and sometimes just plain old being scared. I almost saved this for Fun for Friday, but it's sort of a Thursday Thoughts kind of post too. But mostly it's random thoughts that I need to confess. 1. Training plans scare me. Yes, I'm a certified running coach. Yes, I put together plans for other people. Personally? I hate plans because the finality, the perceived strictness of them scares me. Therefore, I'm doing a very lose, very un-written down kind of marathon training plan. 2. Not having a true plan scares me. Don't you just love it when one thing scares you but then not having it scares you too? So not having the plan written down in stone makes me scared that I'

Has it really been a full week since I last blogged? Yep, I guess it has. Sometimes time just gets away from you a bit, or in reality other things take precedence over blogging. Sometimes those "things" include just logging off each evening, something I highly recommend. Last week was rather busy. I got in all of my training runs, including another day of hill repeats. It can help having good company to keep you motivated, especially when you're doing something rather insane like running up and down a hill for no good reason right? Sometimes running can really pay off too. I decided to take a slightly different route at the start of my run and under a street lamp (that was actually on), I spotted a dollar bill folded up. Score! It also helped make the fact that it was 77 degrees and still dark a little less sad. Saturday morning was going to be a really long day. I was out the door by 7 am (sleeping in) for my long run. The plan was similar to last Satur

I've not really been talking much about any of my training lately. I don't know that it's all that exciting. I'm training for a marathon so that means I'm running. And running. And fitting in cross-training and weights. I don't even want to tally up the time I'm spending doing these things. Anyone else ever feel like training starts to take over their lives? I'm not even to my true long runs yet. Anyhoo ... This past weekend was a good one overall. Saturday was a bit full, but I made up for that on Sunday with lots of reading time on the patio. Saturday morning was actually finally cool enough so that I could sleep in for a change. It was so nice not having to get up and out the door by 6 am on the weekend. In fact, I didn't head out until 8. My goal was to shoot for 13-14 miles depending on how I felt. The temps were hovering just below 60 degrees and the skies were overcast. I was a happy runner. I may have been a bit too happy though. My inten

Well we made it to Friday! Of course around here (as in my blog) that means Fun for Friday . This week I'm "borrowing" an idea from Tara at Running 'n' Reading  and sharing 10 Things About Me . You should stop by Tara's blog and say hi. She happens to live in the same city (though we've not met yet), she's a runner who also is running the 3 Bridges Marathon in December as her first full as well (though this is her 2nd to train for as the Little Rock ended up being called this year because of weather ), and if you like to read, you're in luck there too! 1. My mom chose my first name based on a soap opera character she liked. My middle name, Rosa, comes from my great-grandmother. 2. I hated having red hair as a child. One uncle called me Red, there was a boy in school who always called me Big Red (as in the gum). Now that I'm older, I wish the red showed through more. You can sort of see the red here, it seems to change based on lighti

Yesterday was all about running, and today will be as well. However, today's post was not inspired by some great runs I had in Boston. This one is inspired by a run I had on Saturday - my 13 mile run - when I had some super sweet chick yell at me. Oh being a runner can be so fun. I was probably 10.5 miles into my run. It was a good run for me. One of the better long runs I've had in a while actually. There was just enough of a breeze to help with the temperatures. I had found a good rhythm and was humming right along. At that point, I knew I was going for 13 miles, the longest run I've done since spring. I was happy. I was coming up a street that happens to be part of the Little Rock Marathon route. I don't usually run up that particular road, but I was just zig zagging along enjoying myself, so I ended up headed that direction. I should back up to say that the majority of this particular run had been done on the river trail system and I was just coming off a stretc

Today will be my final installment of my Boston Recap posts. If you missed the previous two, you can catch up on The Food and The Enjoying . Today's post is about the running . If you're a runner, you cannot go to Boston and not run. I think it's some sort of law in fact. And quite frankly, I think even non-runners might be inspired to run in Boston. When we had left Little Rock, we were enjoying heat indices of 100+ with humidity and dew points that created a fantastic sauna effect. Definitely ideal running weather right? Boston was the complete opposite for weather. The air felt crisp like fall. It was in the 50s when Jason set out with me to run Friday morning, almost chill-bump inducing. In other words, I was downright giddy to run.  Jason hasn't been running much lately, so not only was I getting to run in much better weather, getting to enjoy some fantastic new views, but also getting to do so with him. I was a happy runner for certain.  Our hotel was less

Today I thought I'd take a break from my Boston Recap Posts. If you missed them, you can catch up on The Food and The Enjoying . I'll share about The Running next week. But my mind is seriously still on vacation mode. It's so hard to get back to reality isn't it? It's hard to jump back into our routines, which we normally crave of course. Funny how we want routine to an extent but then pine away for release from that norm (aka vacation). We usually think, "why can't I be on permanent vacation?" Who wouldn't want to sleep in a bit later, have an extra glass of wine on a patio overlooking spectacular views each day or strolling through parks leisurely rather than being in an office? But honestly, don't we also tend to want to get back home, back to our norm? Maybe not work exactly, but what we're used to like our family, friends, furbabies, own beds ... our routines. Rather than dwelling on the fact that this time last week I was li

Picking up where I left off with the  Boston Part 1 - The Food post, now I'll talk a little more about the Enjoying that we did, and that includes some sight-seeing as well. Thursday, Jason and I pretty much hit the ground running after checking into our hotel. After a relaxing lunch, we hoofed it to Fenway Park to do their facilities tour. I'll be honest, I wasn't super keen on this but am really glad that we did the tour. It was very informative and behind-the-scenes. While watching a game would have been fun, you would miss out on some of the features of the park itself including the history. Friday morning we woke up and ran (which I'll talk more about in my Running recap post), then it was time to clean up and check out of the hotel. Thankfully, they were very accommodating and held our luggage for us as our friend, Scott, was going to pick us up later in the day. After stopping by the Farmers' Market and picking up some food to enjoy, we walked ov

I won't even begin to lament on how hard it is to get back to reality after a vacation. Everyone knows that feeling. It's even harder when you had an amazing, whirlwind of a trip. I feel like it just flew by in a blur upon reflection. Of course, at the time, we were fully immersed in just enjoying. Thursday morning we were up super early for a 6:45 am flight to Boston. The upside of an early flight is that you have most of the day to still enjoy your destination. We landed in Boston just after 1 and were checked into the hotel by 2. The trip involved staying Boston Thursday night, sightseeing most of Friday, then moving on to our friends' house in Peabody for the remainder of the trip. We ended up staying at the  Copely Square Hotel , which was a wonderful choice for us. They were very accommodating as well by letting us check in early and also holding our luggage on Friday after we had to check out. During the day, they have an area with lemonade and flavored water s