vacation |

08/23/2016
by She's Going the Distance 5 Comments

I got My Phil of Indiana ;)

Monday: 6m easy 9:11/pace, Crossfit

Tuesday: Rest

I’m continuing to receive congratulations for the ultra i ran a week ago and each time I get confused for a second. I swear I keep forgetting it happened. haha. I think my brain is trying to erase it from my memory.

Marathon training is going very well. I’m using Hanson’s Marathon Method this training cycle and so far I love it. I choose my time goal, Hanson’s provides the paces and the workouts. I’ve also recently started Crossfit and will do a post about it soon! I have so many thoughts so a blurb just isn’t enough.

To the main event! I found cheap airfare and headed to Chicago/Northwest Indiana last week to hang out with my former roommate/Bff who had a baby over 4th of July weekend. Marie is on maternity leave and I wanted to see her family before her life gets hectic.

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This trip was so fun and relaxing. Her 6 week old baby, Phil, is such a cutie and sleeps and eats very well. We spent time watching the the Olympics, movies, eating pizza (nothing tops midwest pizza) cooking, trying new local coffee shops and catching up on life. She’s the kind of friend you can tell anything to, she’ll finish my thoughts and join in when I start singing songs outloud.

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When I found a break in the weather (it was humid out there and rained on and off a couple days) I fit in training runs. I had a tempo and a long run to squeeze in. And let me tell you something: the flat terrain was easy, but running in a straight line 6 miles out and back was mindnumbing.

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I can say now, I appreciate running in Maryland. The terrain changes, the hills and the trail systems are incredible. I’m super grateful i’ve been able to live in different states and continually grow as a runner.

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I’m also growing as an eater. We stopped at Baskin Robbins for a large waffle cone. They have a flavor called Oreo Milk. It’s oreos, kelloggs cereal, and frosted kelloggs corn flakes. I can’t even tell you how good it was. Just go try it. Even if you just get the pink sample spoon.

yes i had a stomach ache after this

My last day was spent with Elise. I missed her.

They have an HTC Vive virtual reality headset. It was so much fun! There’s nothing to compare it to either. It’s so different than any video game, 3D or 4D Universal Studios ride. There is nothing like it- if you know someone with a Vive go play on it!

Kyle and Elise had me in a Minecraft world, and asked me to step of the ledge of a very high building. You are lucky enough to watch me with my scared high voice freak out. Here ya go..my first appearance on video on the blog. So proud of this moment.

Last Week

Monday: 6m easy 10:30/pace, Crossfit

Tuesday: 8.1m interval (5 x 1000s @6:40/p)

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 9.1m tempo (6 @ 7:47/pace)

Friday: 12m long 10:09/pace

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 8m easy 8:20/pace

Total Miles: 43.2

Ever tried VR?

How do you workout on vacation?

07/06/2016
by She's Going the Distance 12 Comments

In 48 Hours a Lotta Life Happened.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6m easy 8:40/pace

Wednesday: 8m tempo (2m warm up, 5 @ 7:30/pace, 1m cooldown), 45 min upper body

July 4th weekend were spent in Chicago for a birthday and a wedding. Friday morning I loaded up a few bags & LE and drove to the midwest! I made it in early enough to grab hotdogs & fries and head to a local NWI (northwest Indiana) fireworks show #Merica. Also just because I have to say it, the midwest does fireworks right. Best show i’ve seen in years. DC you need to step up your game, it’s quite embarrassing being the nation’s capital.

Saturday morning started with an easy eight mile run. I was so thankful this was a cutback week. I’m finally feeling these 40+ weeks! My best friend Marie (she’s been on the blog a few times before) was due with her first baby boy on July 4th. She invited me to her last ultrasound that morning. I missed so much of her pregnancy so being there at the last appointment felt very special.

Everything seemed like it was going well, we were discussing brunch and catching up on life. The doctor stepped in the room and let us know Marie’s amniotic fluid was extremely low so they had to move her into labor & delivery. I think the doctor’s exact words were, “We’re going to get things moving along.” Which made us both a little confused. Marie needed to hear exactly what was going on. The doctor clarified that she was about to be induced!

I hung out with her while she made calls and facetimed her family. My sis-in-law Trish came up to the hospital to bring food and keep us company for a few hours. Marie’s mom made it up to the hospital soon after and I felt better about going to the wedding. Induction takes a while and the doctor was confident she wouldn’t have the baby until the next day.

I rushed home to change for the wedding and headed to Chicago!

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The venue was at City View Loft and was so pretty! We had a blast catching up with family and the bride and groom looked amazing!

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The weekend just kept rolling on… the next morning at 9:00am Marie had her baby and little Philip entered out world!

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I made a quick stop to the hospital to drop of gifts and meet little Phil then took off to the cottage for Josh Raycroft’s 30th birthday and 4th of July festivities!

Josh on the left

Pro compression socks for all sports! (or recovery from wearing heels all night!)

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The next day I turned around and drove back home. That was a FAST weekend!

Last Week

Monday: 35min legs (deadlifts, kb swings, front squats, lunges)

Tuesday: 7.5m easy 9:48/pace

Wednesday: 10m easy 8:55/pace, 20 min shoulders/core

Thursday: 6m easy 9:23/pace

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8.6m easy 8:51/pace

Sunday: Rest

Total Miles: 32.1 (cutback!)

Have you had a day or weekend with several life events?

06/01/2016
by She's Going the Distance 2 Comments

Coulter Lake Guest Ranch! Colorado Pt. 1

Monday: 5.5m easy 8:34/pace

Tuesday: 6.2m tempo (2m warm up, 3m @ 7:08/pace, 1m cool down)

I’m dividing the Colorado post into 2 parts, the outdoorsy dude ranch part & the Denver city part. This trip was a gift from my favorite family. They truly consider me their adopted daughter and I will always think of them as family. The more families I have the better! More trips, more Thanksgiving’s & Christmases, more love and support!

I was beyond excited for a week away from the east coast and ready to embrace ranch life in the Rockies.

Coulter Lake Guest Ranch sits near Rifle, CO and about 40 minutes of dirt road up in the mountains at 8,400ft elevation. Yes, we all felt the altitude. No one was sick from it, just a lot of people feeling out of shape when we climbed anything with an incline.

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The gorgeous drive up ❤

The ranch was beautiful! There are 3 guest cabins which were very simple with beds, a couch, fireplace and bathroom. They can have up to 30 guests at a time, but we lucked out and were the only family staying that week!

The main lodge had huge tables where we spent most of the time when the rain came. The first few days entailed a lot of off and on rain and it was pretty cold. It even hailed a couple times. I wished I packed a few more sweatshirts by the 2nd day. If it looks like I’m wearing the same clothes over and over it’s because I am.

The entrance to Coulter Lake- the horse barn!

Cloudy day – no filter and still beautiful!

The ranch is known for the horseback riding. We rode three times, and with each ride our horses got to know us better and the weather continually improved. I don’t think any of us had ridden horses since we were kids, so this was a learning experience all over again. My horse was Jake. He was pretty cool. File_000 (174)

This is all of us on the 2nd ride of the week:

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giving the horses a break

We got on the lake a few times for canoeing and spotted a bald eagle on several occasions!

eagle is flying in the center of this pic!

It felt great to be away from home and out of the gym. I need more of these trips in my life.

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Once it stopped raining and warmed up we were able to hike on trails right behind our cabins and I actually fit in a quick run. This vacation was a great time to ease off running a bit and enjoy time with friends.

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This might be my favorite picture of the trail…so perfect, so Disney-esque

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On the last day we finished a 1,000 piece puzzle we started because of the rain…Also we used it as a sort of punishment when you lost a card or dice game. When you were “out” you had to go puzzle. 🙂

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We were taught how to throw a lasso. I wasn’t very good at it, but it was so much fun trying!

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The first part of our trip went by way too fast with the canoeing, fishing, the horses, the trails, shooting rifles, white water rafting, campfires, the puzzling!!!

From my Insta

Classy with our red wine in mason jars

OH and a very important part of our trip… The cooler!

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Colorado Part 2 will be up by the end of the week so stay tuned for more pictures~!

THANK YOU PAT & KATHY!

Last Week

Monday: 10.3m easy 8:45/pace

Tuesday: 7m easy 6 x 800s 7:00/pace

Wednesday: 45min total body

Thursday: 6.2 hill sprints 8:24/pace

Friday: 5m easy 9:35/pace

Saturday: 12.4m long 8:54/pace

Sunday: Rest

Total Miles: 40.9

Where’s the last place you vacationed?

Do you ever use vacation as a time to take a break from working out?

03/05/2015
by She's Going the Distance 9 Comments

This Oughta Warm You Up

Monday: Rest/traveling

Tuesday: 6m easy 8:40/pace

Wednesday: 7.3miles interval work- 6 x 1000m progressive repeats (6:44, 6:39, 6:33, 6:27, 6:22)

Thursday: Rest/snow day

I’m getting so tired of reading Facebook, IG, texts, blogs where complaining about how winter just doesn’t end. Apparently for the DC area, this finally is the end. We just got another 5 or so inches and it’s still coming down. Next week will begin my annual tradition to Boycott Winter. Which entails me putting my winter coat in storage, shopping for a new swimsuit and planning vacations. If you want to read about how I broke up with winter last year you can read it here 🙂

Instead of complaining about winter (even though by not complaining, i’m obviously still complaining ahhhhhh!) Let’s take a look at some fun, warmer weather pics from my weekend trip to Los Angeles. On our first morning we went on a hike/walk/whatever workout you SoCal’ers call it..

Then we drove up Mulholland Drive to see the Hollywood sign cause it was a close drive.

Sunday it rained off and on all day, but I was determined to get to the beach…It down poured the entire drive, but i saw -literally- a silver lining in the clouds and kept thinking, it might not raining at the beach…

So I parked the rental car at the empty beach at an already paid for meter and headed toward the sand.

We watched the few people hanging out, waiting for the sun to show up. It did and it was glorious. The east coast gets the sunrise, but i’m not a morning person, so this was heaven.

As much as I wanted to run out in LA, I didn’t want to take time away from visiting with my sister on a short trip and also didn’t want to stress over fitting in a long run. I crammed all my workouts in and did a long run in the a.m. before my flight. Which was stressful and exhausting, but so worth the relaxing weekend.

Last Week’s Recap

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 7m 2 x 2 tempo (2miles @ 7:03/pace, 2 @ 6:58 – one mile warm up, one mile recovery in between, and 1 cool down), 3000m row.

Wednesday: 4 Rounds, 25 Pull Ups (assist machine) and 1m easy 8:40/pace (total 100 pull ups, 4 miles)

Thursday: 5.5m intervals 8 x 400s ( 2 @ 5:52/pace, 2 @ 5:45, 2 @ 5:39, 2 @ 5:37), 15min core

Friday: 10m easy 8:13/pace

Saturday: 8m walking/hiking

Sunday: Rest

Total Miles: 26.5 + 8 walking

Sunrise or Sunset?

East Coast or West Coast?

Coffee or Coffee? exactly, coffee is the only answer.