Back on the band wagon....sort of

I am back to running after running Ragnar. Yay!! My ultimate goal is to get back to running every M W F but lately I have been doing M W and pooping out by Friday. I have been doing 4 miles in 37 minutes. 9 minute miles. Hey, I'll take it. It feels good to see this on the treadmill when I'm done running...
I might be a wuss but running outside is a no-go for me right now. It is just way too hot. I'm hoping it will cool down by the end of August but it seems like we are having longer winters and longer summers the past couple years, so who knows when it will start cooling down. I'm not complaining though, I have been thoroughly enjoying my time at the pool, the lake, and the golf course. I have been swimming laps at my chiro's request. I have tense muscles between my neck and shoulder and he says swimming will help loosen those muscles. This weekend I am going to the lake with my family to soak up the sun.
As far as running goals go right now, I have another mud run in September that I'm hoping I can find someone to do it with me. It was so much fun last year! Here is our team picture from the finish line last year...We were disgustingly muddy. i love it! Running 6 miles through swamps with mud squishing around in your shoes is quite the experience. The next running goal is a half marathon. My friend Katie and I want to meet up in TX to run a half next spring. I am way excited and I hope it happens!!
I'm going to say it.......once you say something it officially makes it a challenge you take on with yourself. Here it goes........I want to do a mini triathlon. I remember being nervous to say i was thinking about Ragnar. Now I'm nervous to say I'm thinking about a mini tri. This will be especially difficult because it takes some intense training. You not only have to train in the three areas of running, swimming, and biking but you have to train the transitions from one to the other. I have heard that's the hard part. When you are biking intensely, your muscles are so focused and working so hard then all of the sudden you want them to run and use different muscles and they are sitting there going "WTF??" Then throw in the swimming. I do need a bike first but I think I can just borrow one from someone. A mini tri isn't all that long so you don't HAVE to have a bike that fits you perfectly. I might just borrow my mom's mountain bike for it. Anyways, I am busy with work and summer school right now and adding 11 credits for school in the fall so I think it will be a while until I have time to train for it. It's definitely something I have been thinking about a lot though. Ok, well wish me luck on my run today! TTYL! =D

I love food!

I keep putting off posting on this blog because I planned to do a Ragnar post. I wanted to post pictures and tell everyone all about Ragnar and why they should do it. I haven't been able to get the pictures off my camera. I don't know where the cord is and I can't find my memory card converter. Oh, my life is so hard! Lol. It's really not. I just haven't made it to Wally World for a new converter. So.....let me just tell you that ragnar was AMAZING! I shouldn't have been scared at all. So silly. So the most I had ran before Ragnar was probably 6.5 miles. My three legs for Ragnar were 3.4m, 7m, and 6m. My first run was hard because it was super hot. The second wasn't too bad, but super long! It was in the dark so I had a head lamp on and just jammed out to my music. The moon looked amazing that night, so that made it more enjoyable. I have a funny confession. My favorite song that came on while I was doing my night run was Don't Take it Personal by Monica. It's an old song but I was seriously lovin it. You need to YouTube it. My third run was the next morning at about 9am after having about 45 minutes of sleep. I think that's what made this one so hard. It got pretty hot towards the end of it too. I made it though and I cried a little when I finished. I felt so good about what I had accomplished plus I was exhausted so I got a little emotional. The girls who were in my van were just so much fun. We dressed up like Snooki from the Jersey Shore. The first day, we all had Snooki 'poofs'. Lol it was hilarious. It was so cool to see how everything worked out. I think hearing about how it would all work was just a little overwhelming so I didn't really understand the logistics of it all. The worst part was not sleeping, the second worst part was that our SUV was so packed with everyone's shiz that there wasn't much room at all to try and nap. There was much more to it than I have time to write about but pretty much it was amazing and I hope to be able to do it again next year. It is already sold out but I'm hoping that someone will need a runner for their team before then. My best friend Katie and I are also planning to do our first half marathon in Texas in March. Yikes!!

It may be sad, but one of the things I'm most excited about in life right now is food. I don't have any on-campus classes this semester, only online ones, so I have had a little more time to try out recipes. One of my new favorite bloggers is The Peanut Butter Runner. She loves food too and has tons of recipes that I am totally digging so far. She also blogs about fitness. I tried her Incredulada Enchiladas two weeks ago...

They were soooooo good! I had never made enchiladas before. I wasn't ever the biggest fan of them. But these were mmm mmm good! I got ingredients two nights ago to make Bacon Ranch Potato Salad and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars. I'm so excited! I will have to post pics and let you know how they turned out. Oh, one more recipe from her site...Yesterday I tried, for my first time, The Green Monster. I love it! You can't taste the spinach, and it is so good for you!

I have been looking for a long time now for something I could have in the morning besides oatmeal or Cheerios that would give me energy and keep me full for more than an hour. I finally found something to help mix it up! I was getting so sick of my everyday breakfast. Blah. Green Monster, try it! Thanks so much for introducing me to this great blogger, Katie!

I'm always careful what I eat the morning before a run. I can always tell if I ate something I shouldn't have (candy, a donut, etc.) while I'm running. I am running today on my lunch break and I'm totally pumped about it. This morning I had a Green Monster, an apple, and just now I ate the awesome pre-run snack...

Avocado, cheese, and some Kashi crackers. One of my favorite running snacks. I always also have a banana and peanut butter about an hour and 15 minutes before my run. This is only my second run in the past three weeks. I have been slacking since Ragnar!! It's hard because my next race isn't until September (The Dirty Dash) so I feel like I can slack off on running, but I shouldn't!!! Anywho, I will try to get some Ragnar pictures up soon! I hope my post didn't make anyone too hungry! =P