Riding the bus gives you time...

...to write!

Back to back posts, I'm kind of shocked myself. I'm currently on my first megabus trip from union station in Washington, D.C. in route to Pittsburgh. Your first question, why Pittsburgh? One of my very best BFFs lives there and I'm so lucky to be closer to her this summer. Seriously, besides when we both lived in Charleston we have never been just a bus ride from each other. Also, she is getting hitched next spring, so we will be shopping for bridesmaids dresses on Saturday. Bring on the mimosas.

Your second question, why megabus? Why not?! Ok, so this is my first bus trip besides school field trips, and basically that's what this is like. I'm on a double decker bus with TWO seats to myself, plenty of leg room, free wi-fi, outlets to charge my electronic devices (hey, iPhone) and I got to bring plenty of healthy snacks. The best part? Round trip to and from Pittsburgh has cost me a whopping 33 dollars and 50 cents. That's less than a tank of gas folks! Now that's what I call a deal.

Last night, I went to my favorite Thursday night hot yoga class with instructor Brett. After only about 5 sessions I am noticing some major improvements. I can pretty much lock out my knees in all the poses which means my hamstrings are in their best condition e-ver! I don't have quite as much soreness after the classes anymore and I feel so much more limber. I'm definitely going to have to keep this up when I get back to chuck-town (shout out to me newly minted yogi instructor Angie Benson!).

I brought home a fancy quiche Lorraine from Whole Foods last night for dinner with my "roomies". To be honest, I really didn't know what quiche Lorraine was until last night. After scouring the inter-webs I quickly found out (I love you, google). Although one slice of this piece of heaven is relatively low in calories the fat content might just give you a coronary after one bite. No lie. I hear this is good for endurance athletes, but an endurance athlete I am not. I bet there is a healthier version but I'm certain it lacks the fabulous smoky, caramelized goodness of this quiche. Paired with a side dish of strawberries and sliced oranges, I enjoyed every single bite. I don't have a picture but I'll leave you with this snippet from smittenkitchen.com (it closely resembles my purchased egg pie).

Well, that's about it for now. Back to listening to my jams on spotify and stretching out in this limo of a bus. Happy Friday!!!

Up to date

Let's face it, I am probably the world's worst blogger. I'm OK with that, life is pretty busy and sometimes (as a natural introvert), I just don't think to share it with the world. But I'm baaaack with an update!

I'll give you the shortened version. Crushed my finals, celebrated completing my first year of pharmacy school, and then high-tailed it up to Washington, DC for the summer to start on my internships.

I moved in with a friend of mine that I've known since middle school. Her and her husband have graciously taken me in for the summer and only sometimes refer to me as the "sister wife" (we have an odd sense of humor).

My running has slowed down ALOT since I've been in D.C. And by slowed down, I mean the warmer weather combined with the hills have dropped my times to above 10 minutes miles. I haven't seen these times in a while but I know that come fall (and hopefully by the end of the summer) those times will improve. I've done two 10Ks while I've been here and although they haven't been my best times, the added challenges of the hilly terrain has been quite fulfilling. Oh and the Lawyers Have Heart 10K was my first medal for completing a 10K (kind of cool!).

On the cross-training front, I completed a 25 mile bike ride during my first weekend in D.C. thanks to Bike DC! I've been regularly attending Bikram Yoga in Alexandria, VA (check them out if you're in the area, my favorite instructor is Brett! Bikram Yoga of Alexandria ). 90 minutes of pure sweat is definitely a great way to stretch your muscles and get accustomed to the heat of summer! After a 105 degree room, 99 degree weather will seem like a treat! Last but not least, I've been lucky enough to get to work on my swimming skills. My stroke still isn't pretty by any means but I'm hoping to get my freestyle tightened up so that I can regularly integrate some swimming into my schedule when I get back to Charleston in August.

Bike DC (Don't I look legit? Not!)

MARINE CORP MARATHON training has somewhat officially begun for me! I'm on my second week of the Hal Higdon novice 1 program, but I'm adding more cross training so that I don't get completely sick of running after 18 weeks. I started my training a bit early so that if something gets crazy during the fall semester, I can either repeat a week or take the intensity down a notch. Also, if I stay on schedule it will give me just a few extra weeks of training! Which I'm sure I might need for my first marathon. I'm kind of nervous, not going to lie, I've all ready been having nightmares of not finishing (eek!).

OK, that's all for now. I'll leave you with some pictures of what I've been up to lately. Hopefully I'll get in another post before I return to Charleston! Enjoy the summer folks!

Lawyers Have Heart 10K medal

Seriously the best day of my middle school heart's life. Getting to see the dinosaur's skeletons at Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Washington Nationals baseball stadium - I literally interned a block away from the stadium

Pershing Park - cute little park tucked away in the city. The ducks here are hilarious!

Pho on the go! Phojunkies.com food truck to service all your pho needs in the district area.

Washington Monument at night

Obligatory picture of the White House, also at night :-)

A little late on that review...

I was a little bummed to write my Cooper River Bridge Run 10k review. Even though it was my first bridge run and I had a great time running with friends, it was a little disappointing (esp after all the hype that goes into it in the months before). I'm going to make this short since I'm sure most of you have heard about the let down of this years bridge run and by now it's probably like beating a dead horse, what's done is done.

Pros: the bridge run expo has so many awesome booths (but could also use a larger venue), the lululemon shuttle vans were awesome, being early definitely has its advantages in a race of this size, lots of post run snacks (like free Chobani cups!) including a giant brat cooker (the largest in the world I believe? I would have taken a pic but more about this later), the views from the bridge are gorgeous.

Cons: this race has gotten too big (people everywhere, I never really had any space to myself in 6 miles, so don't run this one for time!), water shortages on the course and at the end of the race, 1 hour delayed race start due to transportation issues (huge disaster), bag check can really be improved upon (I was told there would be one, searched everywhere for it to finally find an unmarked van bagging up peoples stuff. Then after the race, no one could tell me where to claim my bag. I wandered around for quite a while until giving up and ended up only being a few feet away from it- hence no pictures).

The race planners and directors did a great job at identifying the problems and issuing not only an apology letter but an apology video as well. I'll definitely give it another try and hopefully it will redeem itself but for right now, I'm still a little bummed at the outcome of my first bridge run. I hope that with more planning and evaluating, next years race can be even better than any before!

So what's new on the home front? Not much, finishing up finals (1 left!). Then packing and heading up to D.C. for the summer where I have not 1, but 2 pharmacy internships this summer! I am super excited, it will give me lots of time to get acquainted with the not as flat running terrain and really prepare me for marine corp. I'm thinking I might need another pair of running shoes, so I'm keeping my eyes pealed for a brand new pair. Also trying to re-build and maintain my weekly running mileage to 20 miles/week until marathon training officially begins. That's about it for now. I'll leave you with a pic of a great exam snack I found on pinterest, it helps me feel full (which keeps me from eating junk) and gives me study energy!

No-bake energy bites (please google the recipe - they are oh so yummy and nutritious!)

Why I'm pumped for the bridge run!

I am not going to complain about how I haven't written in a while. Let's just be honest, if I didn't come home every day just absolutely spent, I'd be writing. The fact that I no longer have internet at home (long story), doesn't help much either. Thank goodness for my smart phone (which probably happens to be smarter than me sometimes)!

Now on to business. I am very lucky to not only live in such a beautiful place but to live in a place that really supports running and runners. I can say this now, but I didn't always feel this way about Charleston. I moved here right after college, I was your typical post college graduate with a liberal arts degree. I had some vague notion of what I wanted to do with my life but besides my own internal motivation to figure it out, there was nothing else in front of me. The first few years in Charleston were tough. This town is beautiful, but when you're a young, poor college graduate that doesn't know anyone, it's hard to find your niche. People are so dang nice down here, it's almost too good to be true. Besides the bless-your-heart, god awful drivers these people will smile at you and welcome you with open arms and a glass of pure sugar sweet tea. I was just in a weird place in my life and I wasn't sure I wanted to like Charleston.

I wasn't an avid runner when I moved down here. I had done a few 5ks in college and I enjoyed running for exercise. I had a running buddy for a little while when I moved here but once I started a real job, my life got in the way and running wasn't important enough to me at that time. When I first heard about the bridge run, I thought it sounded like tons of fun and one day I knew I was going to train for it.

Flash forward almost 7 years later and I'm at the cusp of running my first bridge run! Even though it's not my first 10k and I've had so many running milestones in the past year alone, this will still be an emotional race for me. I'm on track with a plan for life, I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, and running has truly made me such a happier person! If you're a new runner, join a running club and find friends to run with, it keeps me motivated every day to keep running when I have people to enjoy it with! When I reach the finish line tomorrow, I can look back on this past 7 years and know that Charleston, SC isn't the place I first thought it was. Even though it will be a long time from now (at least 3 years), I will honestly be sad to leave this place. I am so pumped for my first official bridge run!

I am hoping to get an official race report up tomorrow after the race!

Side note: My college of pharmacy is an awesome supporter of runners. The expo here is just ridiculous. It's an awesome expo (Chobani was my favorite!!!) but the location isn't very friendly to out-of-towners. It gets real hairy with parking and driving through that area of town. So my college picked up our race packets but also gave everyone a really awesome tech running t-shirt that has an Rx symbol on it, so cute! See pictures below. They also hooked us up with a ton of swag, like unlimited free gatorade, cliff bars, the works! For all your pharmacy nerds out there (hey, I'm one of them too), this event is organized by Dr. Dipiro. Yes, the one who wrote that big book you carry around and who happens to be a really good runner! That's my little drop of knowledge for you all today. :-)

Yay! Pharmacy Running Tech T-shirt! 

One ending leads to another beginning...

Oh hey blog, still there? That's good, because I've obviously not been here for a while! However, the good news is that usually the first thing to go when I'm super busy is working out and that has NOT been the case this semester! Unfortunately, blogging has taken a back seat. Note to self: need to work on this.

In running news, I finished my second half marathon!! Remember the New Orleans one I signed up for a while back?! Well I did it AND I didn't really follow my training plan like last semester. Actually I only did one long run before this half. I have been participating in a hard core boot camp three times a week so I'm guessing that did a lot for strength. I didn't PR in this one but I wasn't far off from my first time and I felt really good afterwards. I'm talking like I didn't feel max exertion and little to no soreness the next day. Good signs right?!

That being said... I finally did it! I signed up for my very first marathon!!!!!!

Drum roll please.......

I will be running the marine corp marathon in October 2012. That is, of course, if all things go well. I'm working on my goals and establishing a solid training plan that I can work around with school next semester. I am super nervous but really excited at the same time. I don't even know how to explain it.

I hope you'll all join me along this crazy ride of marathon training! (Eeeek, I just typed marathon training!!! Wow. Ok, this has been happening a lot. Gotta go now.) I'll leave you with this happy pic!

Bye!

Rambling Rut

A few days ago I had a bright and cheery post about running and working out all typed up and then *snaps fingers* just like that, it disappeared. I'm normally very good at saving things or being able to recover lost items but this time I just pressed a button and it was gone. Needless to say, thus began the downhill part of this adventure.

I too disappeared for a bit after the holidays as I tend to do when the weather turns colder and things just get...busy. The IT band has gotten better with new shoes but the training plan for the New Orleans half hasn't been going so well. I started a boot camp class last week and after three sessions ended up with an acute bronchial infection. This basically means I just cough a lot, have a lot of congestion, get tired easily and am just in general not worth a whole lot. This is very unfortunate as I have a 15k in less than two weeks that I am not even close to being prepared for either. Fun times ahead, for sure.

School has started back and I have managed to not really keep up with things, a lesson I am sure to learn from soon I am sure. Even after a full 3 day weekend of resting and medicating, I am still only slightly better. No running or exercising this week though which kind of puts a lot riding on next weeks preparations.

Let's see, a positive spin on this? 1) I'm back to blogging! Hello *waves hand* 2) I won a guitar from the Rock N' Roll Savannah Half Marathon! (More on this later) 3) I'm still alive! 4) I used my groupon for Trysports in Mt Pleasant, SC to buy a Mizuno ear warmer and long sleeve running shirt. Yay for new running gear!

Hoping to be back on my feet soon and with more on the running and working out front. 'Till then I wish you all good health, don't take it for granted that's for sure!

Baby got a brand new pair of shoes!

I had to cave and get a new pair of shoes before Christmas. I really wanted to hold out because that's all I asked for this year for Christmas so I'm pretty sure that's what I'm getting. But the knee pain was just getting annoying! I was doing everything for IT band pain; stretching, yoga, icing, strengthening. Even though the pain would go away for days on end, as soon as I put on my old shoes and even attempted a run, my knee just wasn't having it. Active.com had a pretty good schwaggle deal for trisports.com the other day so I splurged and bought the Mizuno Wave Rider 14. Unfortunately, this shoe has terrible reviews! But I remember trying this shoe on back in May when I was getting fitted for new shoes, post ankle breaking and pre return to running. I remember thinking they were a little small and although I liked the fit, my aisics won me over. Unfortunately, another pair of those aisics are just too expensive right now. I got risky and took a chance with these mizunos. So far, I've gotten up to 5 miles and not had any knee pain. Granted, I haven't really done any speed work and that is what seems to aggravate my IT band the most, so we shall see. I'm hoping to get in 6 miles on Friday morning back in my home town of Wilmington, NC. I normally wear a size 8 but went to an 8.5 because this shoe runs very small. I have a very narrow foot, so these shoes seem to fit really well for me so far. Again, if things go south with these shoes, I am hoping Santa may have something else in store so I have a safety net. For now, the knee pain has subsided and I think I got lucky with this choice!

New Shoes!

I've really just been running this week, haven't gotten much of any other activities in but you know, I've been a little lazy about getting out and about. 

Total weekly mileage: 11 (still hanging in there!)

Yoga sessions: 2

Happy Holidays!