Weekend

Well this weekend was absolutely wonderful! We had amazing weather in Memphis so I spent the majority of the weekend outside.

Friday

Friday I celebrated my best friend Emily's birthday with some amazing carrot cake!  I had only tried carrot cake one time previously and did not remember liking it very much.  I decided to try it again and it was super delicious! 

 Her birthday wasn't actually until Saturday but she already had plans that night so I helped celebrate with her family the night before

Saturday

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to get ready for the Heart & Sole 5k.  It was a race we found on Groupon for only $10.00 and it was held at the Hickory Ridge Mall.  To say the least, I'm not even sure if it was worth $10.00 haha I guess I got a free t shirt out of it but overall I was really disappointed. 

 Emily snapped this crazy picture of me....I was kinda excited that morning

 

 We registered inside the mall and hung out inside until the race began

 

 After the race

  The t shirt we received

Well there are many reasons why I was disappointed with this race but I kind of new going into it that it was going to be pretty lame but just couldn't resist signing up when it was only $10.00.  There were hardly any people in it (maybe 20 I feel like) and all we did was run around the outside of the mall 3 times to make a total of 3.6 miles.  No start/finish line, no medals, not one person cheering... the environment of the whole race was awful but at least I got a few miles in haha my final time was 3.6 miles in 31.21 which averaged to be an 8:55 minute mile which isn't awful and I got a "free" t shirt so I guess I shouldn't complain! 

 Around and around we went outside the mall....super weird and super lame

 Sunday

Sunday I woke up to absolutely GORGEOUS weather and knew I could not and would not sit inside all day! I texted Emily of course and we decided to go for a nice long Sunday bike ride!  We ended up riding 22 miles!! We stopped at a cute little cafe and split a sandwich and got to visit with Jackie and Michael! Jackie ran my first half marathon with me and I am super excited for her to start running with us again! :)

 Emily recently bought a road bike and was zooming ahead of me like a brat for most of the ride :)

 Loved being able to sit out on the patio on such a gorgeous day!!

 One of the best sandwiches I have had in a long time! Emily and I split this and took a break from the bike ride to enjoy the wonderful weather, good food, a few adult beverages, and great friends!

My thighs were pretty sore by the time we finished but they feel great today!  I really hope this weather stays around for a while because I don't think I could ever get tired of it! I also found out yesterday that I will be running the Little Rock Half Marathon this Sunday, March 4th!! Emily's little sister had planned on doing it but changed her mind so I am going to use her bib! I am super excited and a little nervous because according to the elevation chart it seems pretty hilly but I can't wait to run my second half marathon with Emily!!

 i got this book from the library today and am super excited to start it! I just finished the Hunger Games series and loved it and I have heard this series is similar! 

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

74 degrees in February...

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful outside!! It made me so excited for the warmer weather even though we really haven't had much cold weather so far at all this winter.  After subbing yesterday, I went went on a 5 mile run.  I only planned to run 4 but it was just too pretty outside so I went for one more!  I am doing a 5k on Saturday and wanted to push myself on the run yesterday!  I ran every mile under 9:00 minutes which was great! 

I ran around the two lakes behind my neighborhood.  It is not very far around...a little under a mile around both but it's close and pretty with no red lights ha

Around and around I go :)

 

The path around the lakes (I decided to pause my runs for a second and attempt to be a blogger by taking pictures ha)

Pretty sure I will not be running around the lakes again anytime soon though at least not in the late afternoon. I have no idea what it is and you would think I would have learned my lesson but sadly I still hadn't.  Every time I run around the lakes in the late afternoon, once I get home I sneeze probably over 50 times and no I am not exaggerating and then my nose gets extremely stopped up and my eyes are red and I am absolutely miserable.  I have pretty bad allergies anyways and I have got to be allergic to something around that lake because it is like a bomb went off and I go from feeling great to absolutely miserable which SUCKS! So no more pretty lake runs for a while.

I mean come on...look how awful I look? :( Great run but miserable afterwards! It is so crazy I have no idea what could cause it but even my mom told me not to run there anymore.  Oh ya and that is not how I really smile I am not sure what kind of face that is....freak.

Are you surprised I blogged again so soon? I am but really I only wanted to blog because I actually took pictures ha 

I'm excited for the weekend!  Subbing 3rd grade tomorrow and 1st grade Friday then staying at Emily's for our 5k on Saturday morning....which is also EMILY'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! :) 

 

I got her a matching 13.1 bic band because we already do everything together, blog about each other constantly, and have matching camel backs so figured she needed the exact same BIC Band as me too! ;) (Really though they don't slip, they have a ton of different sizes/designs, they are inexpensive, and they donate part of every purchase to a different charity each month....awesome if I do say so myself)... Sad it probably won't be in until after her birthday...oops 

Oh ya another random piece of information since I seem to be rambling on this post is that, Emily, we must take a million pictures before/after the 5k so I can change my main picture at the top because I am not a fan of that hideous thing.

Hope you are all having a good week 

(Does anyone even read this thing? Probably not....I often feel like I'm talking to myself which is just lovely disturbing)

 

Update

I am really not very good at this whole blog thing...I feel like I never have much to talk about.  But anyways, I had a wonderful 3 day weekend (the joys of being a teacher) that consisted of running and hanging out with Emily of course! We ran in Bartlett on Saturday morning and I had a great 10.5 mile run! I ran under 10 minute miles for the entire run so I'm really hoping I can get under 2 hours 10 minutes in the Germantown Half Marathon which is a little less than a month away! 

I know I said I ran 10.5 miles but I stopped the workout before

 heading back through the neighborhood to my house! I am not a liar ;)

I also got a camel back this weekend!!! I absolutely love it! I have to have water during long runs and have tried a couple different things. I have a handheld water bottle and a belt but this is definitely my favorite so far! 

 

 

Twins! I also bought my sister one for her birthday since she is running her first half marathon on April 1st! :) I really want to do this race with her but it is $70.00! I wish my mom would pay for it (I know you're reading this mom since you are probably one of the only people that reads this boring blog of mine ;)

I am doing a 5k this Saturday!! Emily found it on Groupon and since we obviously have to do everything together I had to spend the $10.00! I'm excited to run a race even if it is short!  The race is also the day of Emily's birthday so hopefully she will be super speedy and win something cool ;)

So other than hanging out with Emily and running, I didn't do much this weekend! I am so glad I had a wonderful run this week and am getting super excited for my next half marathon! 

 

For Valentine's day my mom got me some goodies....A lovely owl nightgown (yes I like and wear nightgowns do not judge me) and I am freakishly obsessed with owls...it is kind of obnoxious. Maybe one day I will post about everything I own that has owls on it and you will understand...

 

 

Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself! I also got lots of earrings! No boy Valentine this year for the first time in 5 years...but I was okay with that! :) 

For dinner tonight, my mom made Lasagna and it was DELICIOUS!!! YUM!

Have a good week (Because I'm pretty sure you know I'm not going to post again until next weekend because I'm a slacker)

 

Boring...

Sorry it's been a while! I have definitely been slacking on the whole blog thing but had more important things to do ;) Anyways, as I mentioned in the last post, I recently got an iPhone and my dad told me to get the RunKeeper app and I used it for the first time last week and loved it! I love how you can set a goal pace for each mile and then you have a "coach" telling you if you are meeting that goal and by how much! 

I also love how you can see your pace for each mile!! I set my goal pace for 10 minutes a mile but the slowest mile I had was around 9:30! I am hoping to get around 2 hours for my next half marathon so hopefully I will continue getting faster! 

I also attended a boot camp class at a church this past Tuesday and it was a lot of fun but the next day was NOT!  It is free which is definitely a positive and fun too- they play awesome music throughout the class! And man oh man was I sore the next day! Those squats were killer and walking up and down the stairs to my room the next few days was definitely painful! But will definitely be doing this class again! 

 My "workout" mat and weights that we used throughout the class! 

School was out for the kids on Friday so I had the day off and planned to do my long run that day because it was supposed to be freezing on Saturday!  Well, as I headed over to Emily's (I told you I would mention her in pretty much every post) it began to rain and even snow a little.  It was already super cold out and figured running in the cold while it was raining would not be very fun!  We really wanted to get a long run in and the weather was not supposed to be any better on Saturday either so we decided to hit up the YMCA for a long run around the indoor track/ on the treadmill. 

I ran about 6.5 on the track (I went around and around in a circle A LOT!) and then we ran 3 miles on the treadmill to total about 9.5 miles! I definitely enjoy running outside more but am super glad I got a long run in without having to do that in the freezing cold!

This was a super lame and boring post. Oh well!

FAIL

So I woke up around 8 this morning and realized it was definitely not going to be a pretty day outside.  Emily and I couldn't decide if we wanted to brave the weather and go ahead and run or wait until it was pretty out tomorrow.  Well, after deciding that it really wasn't raining very hard we would go ahead and get our long run in for the week. 

After about 2 miles I was pouring sweat.  The humidity today was around 98% and I quickly realized it was a  BIG mistake to wear a jacket..HA! While waiting for a red light I took it off and tied it around my waste but was annoyed I had worn it in the first place. 

Then around mile 3, I really really had to go to the bathroom.  I was super thirsty for some reason this morning so I'm pretty sure drinking an excess amount of water caused this issue.  This has never happened to me before!  We ran by a park and I ran off to go to the bathroom only to find the bathroom was locked. NOT HAPPY!!!!!! 

I was so thirsty but told myself I could not drink anymore or I really would pee myself. 

(Picture not from today)

I do love my hand held water bottle though! 

Needless to say, in the end this caused the rest of the run to be awful.  The only thing I could think about was how much I had to go to the bathroom and how if I didn't find somewhere soon I may just wet my pants.  I saw a man walking out to his car and even thought about asking him if I could pretty please use his bathroom but figured that would be super creepy and just weird.  

Emily was not having the best run either so in the end our 10 mile run turned into 6 which is pretty disappointing but I guess it could be worse. That has never happened to us before. We have never had to cut a run that short but I guess there is a first time for everything.

Me and Emily after our failed long run :( 

We have already decided to run around 6 to 7 miles tomorrow to make up for our laziness today. 

On a better note, my Memphis Tigers won today against Xavier and we desperately needed that win! GO TIGERS! 

Lata dudes. 

What a Wonderful Week :)

So this week turned out to be absolutely wonderful because....

1. I went from this....

Please don't be jealous of my sweet Barbie phone ;)

 

 

     To this.....

A brand new iPhone4 

I even splurged and got a LIFEPROOF case 

 

   This is a huge deal because I have never had a smart phone before until now! About time, I know I know but it's a really long story why I haven't had one until now and I don't want to bore everyone with that but needless to say I am one happy girl now that I upgraded!! 

2. I got to sub all 5 days this week!! Teaching wonderful children and making money.... What more could I ask for....my own classroom-well, yes but time will provide that I hope!

3. I finished the third book in the Hunger Games Series on Tuesday! I read the 3 books in a week and a half! They are amazing and I cannot wait until the movie comes out! 

However, one way this week could have been better was if I would have ran more than I did :( I feel like I was super busy this week but I definitely had time to run so that is no excuse and next week I WILL run more than I did this week!  I did run 4 miles today on the treadmill because it's raining outside, yuck! 

(Thought I would dazzle this post up with lots of pics)

The "lovely" treadmill at my house

Kinda funny how before I began training for the half marathon, I only ran on the treadmill and now I would prefer running outside any day!

Ran 4 miles while catching up on last night's episode of Private Practice

Love my Asics and Puma socks!

And I especially love my BIC Band!!!

 

 

 

 

 Well Saturday's are usually my long run day of the week and this week it is 11 miles...however the weather forecast is not looking too good :( 80-90% chance of rain all day long...blah! Looks like me and Emily will have to either run in the rain or run on Sunday! Guess we will decide that in the morning.  

I wanted to leave you with this gorgeous awkward picture of me before my run today trying to use the timer on my camera hahahahah not that great at the whole taking pictures of myself thing

 

Something to Think About...

I recently graduated college with a degree in Education.  Since I graduated in the middle of the school year, I have been subbing since the beginning of January.  It has been a wonderful experience so far but hope to have my own classroom by August! 
Today I subbed for a Physical Education teacher in an elementary school.  I taught children in pre- school up to fifth grade.  

Trying to be a true blogger ;) This is what I decided to wear when subbing for P.E. 

Cute Tennis Shoes Eh?

I even got a whistle ;)

Throughout the day, I began to notice a pattern.  I did not realize how so many children despise exercise.  You would have thought we asked them to run for an hour straight by their reactions to "Jog three laps around the gym to warm up."  It really made me sad because exercise and fitness are so important in not only keeping your body healthy but also in helping them to succeed in the classroom.  It was so obvious the only exercise many of them get was the 30 minutes twice a week during P.E. which totally breaks my heart!  I hope one day I can find a way to help promote fitness and exercise in young children and help them to learn to love it instead of feeling as if it were a punishment. 

I hope that I can help children to believe in themselves instead of immediately thinking they will fail or that it is too hard.  I cannot tell you how many times I heard, "I can't do it" before they even tried today!  Confidence is crucial and I hope to instill that confidence in as many children as possible throughout my career as a teacher! :)