Less Than a Month To Go!

That's right. This past Sunday marked the one-month-to-go-oh-crap! date. We celebrated by running a 10K outside at the Suwanee Greenway. It was a beautiful day. BEAUTIFUL. We've been waiting for that warm sunshine for a long time. We ran 6.2+ miles together and it felt great. The next day, however I was feelin it. Apparently running on a flat treadmill means running on a flat treadmill. The slightest inclines and obstacles can have a huge impact on the novice runner. I was a little sore but I persevered through the rest of the week. Monday was another day with Jillian Michaels and her 30-day shred. Tuesday was a rest day and I soaked that in. Wednesday was another hour-long run. And today was the shred again. For some reason my lower back feels like it has a little tweak in it. Not very good. I hope it gets better by tomorrow because we have another 60 minutes to destroy.

I honestly never thought I'd be able to say that I could run 6 miles...much less 13! It is really amazing how your body adapts. Or maybe it has more to do with your mindset. I stopped telling myself "I could never do that". I just got off my butt and did it! The first part of the run is always the hardest. Once I clear the 30-minute-mark it gets much easier. Some days the end is hard when I'm just counting down the minutes, but I just literally have to coach myself through it. YOU CAN DO IT. DON'T GIVE UP. DON'T GIVE UP. KEEP GOING. IT'S NOT GOING TO KILL YOU. DON'T GIVE UP!

It will be exciting to run through the city with my hubby by my side. I love to run with him. Lately we haven't been able to because of our schedules. I typically try to get up before 7 and work out. Some days he's just not really into that, plus he favors running outside more than me. I miss him when he's not dying on his treadmill right along with me. Sunday's run with Stuart was great. Quality time. It definitely would not have been as enjoyable without him. Plus, we got some great use out of our new sportbands! This week has been a good week in our relationship (just FYI). Lots of spending time together, laughing, watching the Olympics, and good spirits overall. Yay! I love my husband.

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Sorry Legs

Jillian's 30-Day Shred yesterday plus a 5-mile speed workout today= very very sore legs. ouch.

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My Group's Video From Winter Retreat

I mentioned this in an earlier blog. Our Winter Retreat with high-school had a Hollywood Theme so everyone brought costumes and each small group made a movie. Here is mine...they did awesome. You can check out all of the groups' videos on the SL1318 youtube page.

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Life Gets in the Way

What an awesome weekend! My parents flew in late Thursday night. After scrubbing our place and fluffing the pillows in the guest room, Stu and I drove out to the airport to pick them up. Friday morning I got up early (maybe too early) to get a quick run in. 30 minutes. Check. Then my mom and I went to get mani/pedis at my favorite, Peachy Nails. Meanwhile Shel and Stu went to the gym. My dad likes to stay busy so it was good timing. When our nails finally dried we went back home to pick up the boys and then off to Cheesecake Factory. We had gift certificates from some awesome people that we had been saving for this weekend. As we headed to Buckhead snow flurries appeared! By the time our humungo lunch was on its way to our hips, chicken-feather flurries were coming down and it started to look like Colorado. I was very impressed with this Georgia snow. However, that foiled our plans for the afternoon. Around 3pm the roads were getting bad and drivers were getting crazy, I guess when you’re not used to snow you feel the need to do whatever it takes to slow down traffic. So instead of going to the Georgia Aquarium we headed to another great tourist destination: Costco! There my wonderful father bought some necessities that we had conveniently just run out of (ie Dishwasher soap, laundry detergent, TP, Diet Coke, brownie mix etc.) We also bought food for Stuart’s Green Card Party on Saturday. By the time we got home it was full-on mock Colorado. The snow was sticking. Snow men were being made on every corner. And seriously, everyone that got out of their car thought it would be a good idea to throw snowballs. I think we saw about 10 snowball fights on our way home. Weird Southerners.

Saturday would have been a great day to go for a run, but instead we lounged around and my mom and I cooked for the party. Quality time with the parents was a much better use of my time...at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I mean I could have joined my dad when he went to the gym, but I could see it in my mom’s face that she REALLY wanted me to stay and watch CMT Top 20 Countdown. The rest of day was spent cooking and preparing for the festivities. Finally 6pm came and we had a great time at the Green Party. Lots of people showed up and they were all wearing green! It was great. It felt like a pre-birthday party for me! We had a huge taco bar and played Wii all night. My parents snuck out early to go watch Apollo Ohno dominate in speed skating.

Finally Sunday (Valentines Day) rolled around and my dad had an early flight out. If only he had known that he would get stuck in Chicago for 10 hours and get home to Denver the same time my mom did, he could have stayed and watched movies with us all day! Poor chap. It was a great weekend with my family. I love them so much and think the world of my parents. I hope they come back soon! After we dropped off my mom we went to Passion City Church. That was also incredible. Louie is my hero. We went out to dinner with our friends who went to church with us at the crazy Greek restaurant off of I-85 called Mykonos Taverna. That was the craziest dinner I’ve been to in a long time. Complete with Loud Greek music, dancing, and yummy gyros.

So that was our Valentines day. We decided to push our romantic date a month out for when we go to New York. It was a good day, but we did miss our long run that was scheduled. It was supposed to be for almost 2 hours. Oops. I kind of made up for it yesterday, but only ran half that time. Stuart went out and bought us some Nike+ Sportbands. They’re awesome and I’ve been wanting one for a long time. Now we can track everything when we run outside (if it ever warms up in this igloo state). We hit our goal of running a 10K and so rewarded ourselves with some new watches. Our next goal: TEN MILES. Yikes. But the race is a month from this coming Sunday!!! OMG.

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So much for keeping this updated!

Sorry for those of you waiting around for me to update this wonderful space. Work has actually been very busy which in turn has caused me to actually start working.
Anyway, back to the running. About a week ago I did my first "speed workout". Stuart informed me that it's not just for the sake of being able to run faster (which I have no interest in), but to improve lung capacity. So I did a 10-minute warm up, then ran faster than I knew possible for TEN whole minutes, slow for 5, fast again for ten, and then a much needed 10-minute cool down. WHOA. The next three days, it was my quad's turn to be angry with me. I can't remember the last time I was that sore. Plus, we had a middle school retreat this past weekend and I dominated the 6th grade girls in dodge ball. So my right arm was out of commission as well. Ouch.

Sunday was a big day too. We both ran 10K. It wasn't the fastest time, but at least we did it. Check that one off the list. Yesterday was another speed work out. 10-minute warm up and cool down and in between I did 6 minutes fast, 2 minutes slow for a total of 4 times. I was not in the mood to run, but I had to do it anyway.
The workouts are getting more intense this month. And next month is our race! We should start raising money for our Run-for-a-Change Campaign pretty soon. The 30-Hour Famine is the day before our race and our goal is to have people pledge money for our half-marathon that will all go towards the Famine. Our goal as a youth group is to raise $20,000 this year. It's awesome to be part of that.

This weekend my parents come and we have stuart's green card party! woop!!

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