Running Liv's Life

Workout:  Pop Pilates Butt Blaster This past Thanksgiving I ran a Turkey Trot in Naples (a 5K trot).  Let me tell you - I worked my butt off for this race!  I trained really hard.  But, my training was AWFUL!!  I don't know what the heck happened.  I struggled through every hard run I had planned!  Usually, most of my speed workouts I was not able to keep up with my goal pace.  In fact, one speed session I just straight up quit because my legs felt like lead!!  It was weird and extremely discouraging!!  So, guess what??  During the race I struggled.  Shocking, right? Here I am pre race.  At this point I am optimistic that maybe some burst of speed will come shooting out of me.  I have a sore throat, and I haven't slept in 6 days because my kids have been sick, but I still think I can pull off a decent run. Ohhhhhh, the view!!  This course was gorgeous!!  The weather was perfect!!  This setting was kind of pumping me up. Ok, so the actual race.  It was pretty much

Workout: 25 minute easy run Happy Birthday to me!!  Even though my birthday was over 2 weeks ago I am just now enjoying my Starbucks birthday treat!:))  Grande decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte - YUM!!  And can I say I totally don't agree with those people that say, "I would rather eat my calories than drink them".  Nope.  No way.  I love all my Starbucks foo foo drinks;)) So here I am another year older, and a new age group to go with it!  35-39 seems so OLD!!!  Ahhhhh!  I really can't believe I am in the late thirties category.  It totally freaks me in out in a sad and slightly depressed way.  I don't do well with aging:(  Let's move on to happier things.... The birthday run!!  It was brutal.  I only did a 20 minute run, but let me tell you, pushing this beast of a bike trailer was crazy hard!!!  I was huffing and puffing at 1:47 into my run.  But, the weather was gorgeous, and Orlando had a blast so it was totally worth it! Next up, the birthday treat!!

Workout:  Speed work - .5 mile warm up, 2x800, 2x400, 4x200 - And I didn't run a cool down because my hip hurt! I hate doing speed work in the early a.m.  Getting my butt out of bed is hard enough.  Then, to drag myself outside and get my booty moving in high gear down the road is a killer way to start my day!  But, with my husband's work schedule, and the still crazy hot Florida temps it just works best.  So here is my lovely view at 5 a.m.  Dark, dark, creepy shadows, and dark. I don't use my Garmin when doing speed work in the dark.  It has a back light, but it only stays on for like 10 seconds.  There is probably a way to make it glow the entire time, but in 7 years I haven't ever looked that up in the manual.  Hmmmmm, maybe today;)  So what do I use?  Quite simple - my phone!  I always run with my phone in the dark anyway.  You know, just in case I get bit by a cotton mouth or an alligator comes out of the pond!!  Instead of running by distance I just

Workout:  Shoulders and Triceps video then 1 mile warm-up, 5 x 400 meter repeats with 45 seconds rest.  This was my first speed workout in a looooong time.  I was so dead after that I couldn't even run my cool down.  UGH! All running things today on the blog!! 1.  New tunes on my "Run" playlist -   Don't by Ed Sheeran - Oh my gosh!!  I love this song!!!  The beat is really fun although the lyrics  are quite sad.  Apparently it is about his relationship with Ellie Goulding and how she cheated on him (with one of the members of One Direction).  Poor guy!!  Thanks  for making a great song out of it though!;) Shake it Off  by Taylor Swift - Fun!  Fun!  Fun!!  Young Volcanos by Fall Out Boy - Ok, so I thought this song was new until I looked it up and  found out it was released last November.   Geesh!  Where have I been??  Oh well, it is new to me,  and I love working out to it! 2.   Runderpants !!! I've seen these around and have been te

Workout: Workout video - Back and Biceps; Pop Pilates  Abs on Fire  - I highly recommend this video for a serious kick butt ab workout!!  13 minutes of pure torture!! The Rodeo So there's this huge rodeo every year in my hometown.  It's kind of a big deal, but I never bothered to go.  As a kid I didn't go because my parents didn't take us.  And as a young adult I never went because I thought it sounded totally lame.  On a last minute whim I decided to take my daughter.  All her cousins were going, and you know, I couldn't let her be all left out.  It turns out this rodeo is the coolest thing ever!!  I can't believe my parents didn't take us when we were younger.  Such great family fun!!  And such true patriotism showed here!  It restored my faith in Americans!!  Ahhhh, the good 'ole Midwest!:)  Of course I got suckered into a hat.  I let her get the same one as her cousin.  It lights up, and I thought it would be fun for playing at home. 

Workout: Strength training - shoulders and arms.  I'm going to be sooooo sore tomorrow.  I haven't done this video in about 4 months...EEK!! My baby turned 4 quite a few weeks ago, but I really wanted to post a few pictures for me, really.  I don't do big birthday parties.  They're expensive, a TON of work, and I'm just not very good at that type of thing.  So cake and ice cream it is!! The big boy with his birthday cake!  This is the first time EVER I have ordered a cake.  He really wanted a spider man cake, and I new there was no way I could pull something off on my own.  So Sam's Club helped me out;) We just played one little game, but it was a hit!!  This piece of paper cheap game from Party City was so much fun!! Oh, I love this picture of the cousins!!!  If only that dumb chair wasn't covering up Orlando:((   And after seeing those birthday questionnaires on some other blogs I read it made me want to do one,

Workout: 3 mile tempo, ab work Running After my race on Memorial Day I decided to take some time off from structured running.  It was wonderful!!  I ran about 4 days a week, but I only wore a stop watch instead of my Garmin, and I ran nice and slow.  My body totally needed it.  I wanted to use this time to focus on strength training and ab work.  That didn't happen....oops.  I also was going to stretch and work on flexibility.  Yeah, that didn't happen either.  After July 4th weekend I decided to pick things back up to training mode. Here is my first speed workout in about 5 weeks.  My husband and I did repeat 400s.  After the third one I thought I was going to puke!!  I was hurting bad, but I finished and was able to run them all faster than my goal time.  Yippie!! My next race:  Hmmmmm, good question.  I was originally going to run a race July 26, but I had to throw it out the window due to money, money, money, MONEY!!  Stinks having a hobby that can get a little pr

Workout: None After running the Sandoval Goodwill 5K on Memorial Day I kept telling myself to write the race review or I would forget the details.  So now here we are almost a month later, and I have forgotten most of the details.  But, I remember the important ones.  Like: 1.  I remember that it was HOT.  No, like, really REALLY HOT!!  The race started at 7 a.m. and by 7:02 I was dying!! 2.  I remember that the course was very pretty.  The entire course was run through a gorgeous gated community.  I enjoyed the scenery the first 2 miles.  The last mile I was too tired and hot to appreciate  anything. 3.  And I remember that I felt like I was running at least a 9 minute pace the last mile.  It was so insanely hot I had nothing left in me.  I refused to look at my Garmin because I knew the slow pace would mess with my mind.  With about a quarter mile to go I decided to glance at my watch and somehow I was running a 7:30 pace. Mile 1 - 7:32 Mile 2 - 7:29 Mile 3

Workout: 30 minutes strength training, 40 minute run I love to sign up for races that support a good cause.  And this was a good cause!  The race/walk was a benefit to help raise funds for the family of a little girl in the community fighting neuroblastoma.   I don't know this child personally, but I follow her Facebook page and pray for her daily.  When the family posted about a 5K event I knew I had to be there!  So check this out - the entire event was put together by students!!  A class at Florida Gulf Coast University put together this event for a project, and boy was I impressed.  This was a fun run - no timing, no places, etc.  But still, a 5K is no easy task to take on.  I thought everything was well organized, put together nicely, and an amazing crowd showed up for something done by students!!   And because this was a fun run I knew it would be the perfect race to be Lyla's first.  I signed her up for the 5K (children 7 and under were free).  I knew that i

Workout: 30 minutes of strength training A few weeks ago I ran my first race of the year.  I had signed up for a small local race to support Girls on the Run - a character development program for grade school girls.  So it turns out this is the race that almost wasn't.  This is how it went down:  I get to the race totally not feeling it.  Not a big deal.  I go grab my race packet and notice there isn't a bib number.  I ask about that, and I find out this isn't a timed race.  It is "just for fun."  Wait.  What???  Who on earth runs just for fun??  Now I'm kinda annoyed.  I did not wake up at the crack of dawn, drag my kids out of bed, and drive down to Naples "just for fun".  I don't really feel like racing to begin with so at this point I just want to go back home.  I only paid $15 bucks, and I already got my super awesome race tank, so I kinda just want to leave.  As we are walking to the starting line I think, "I don't want to race.

Workout:  3 miles followed by a jump in the pool!! I just started a 5 week training program called The Ultimate 5K Training Plan.  It is from Runner's World, and it is the same program I used last October/November.  I LOVE this plan.  This dude's philosophy is no tempo runs.  Lots of speed work with very short recovery - "uncomfortably short" as he puts it.  Worked for me in the fall so I'm giving it another go! The problem I am having is doing speed work in the heat.  I am definitely not complaining about the heat...I just don't know how to avoid it.  I have two options: 1.  Wake up early.  My husband leaves for work at 5:45 which means I would have to be out the door no later than 5 a.m. for speed work.  I don't mind waking up early, but I do mind the pitch black streets!!!  Even though I live in a gated community I still freak out about strangers hiding in the bushes.  Seriously, I do!!  It HAS to be light out when I run if I am by myself.  Or I

Workout:  3 mile tempo run - beautiful, sunny, 70 degrees!!! I don't even know where to start so I will just jump right in.  We moved to southwest FL.  Matt got a job as assistant principal at Estero High School, and we had 14 days to move 1200 miles.  I must say that brutal winter we were having in the midwest made this quick move A LOT easier!  Ha - but check this out.  Lyla didn't have a pair of boots all winter (I know, I know. I'm a terrible mom for not buying her any).  As we are cleaning out the basement I found 2 pair stashed away in a tote.  Oh my gosh, I was so mad!!!  OK, anyway...... So we moved on a Friday.  Lyla's last day of school was Thursday and we had to say goodbye to the BEST TEACHER EVER!!!  No, seriously.  She is amazing!!  She didn't make me want to get back into teaching, BUT she made me wish I could go back in time and redo the 7 years I did teach.  Not that I didn't love my students, but I didn't love them the way she loves her

Workout: None.  But I did pack and clean like a crazy lady and now I am sore.  That must be equivalent to some sort of workout;) The only good thing about the crazy amounts of now we have had is the awesome sledding hill that was at our resort in Galena.  I suppose skiers are pleased with the abundance of snow as well....anyway.... Awwwwww!  So cute.  My niece, Maya, riding down on Lyla's back.  Their smiles are awesome! Luke is getting drilled with snow.  I love that I captured this face! Okay, so obviously I haven't mastered capturing a moving target.  But good enough.  I see her cute face! Fourth times a charm I suppose.  Actually, this is more like the 28th image, but I FINALLY got a good picture. Too cute not to share.  And I thought the background was really pretty, too!  There was also an ice pond right next to the sledding hill, as well as cross country skiing and snow shoeing.  So much to do within the grounds.  The weekend went by way too fast,