scream it from the rooftops – 15 miles! & challenge monday

This week’s challenge will be all about abs… why?  Because I need to concentrate on mine!  I’m feeling a bit dough-y and I would rather start doing something about it now rather than waiting for the stomach gnomes to sneak in my apt and tighten up my abs for me.  Oh man, wouldn’t that be awesome?!  Why can’t there be stomach gnomes?!

ain’t this the truth!

Here is the scoop:

10 push ups

30 sit ups

10 burpees

.30 second plank

You can do this as many times as you want a day and shoot for 5 out of 7 days.  Last week’s challenge was a bit much for my legs.  So many squats on my RW runner streakin’ legs was tiring and it didn’t last long.

Speaking of which, yesterday I ran 15 miles!  Wahoo!

meagan was waiting for me to finish, although, I don’t doubt I ran at a 16:45 pace at some point!

Once again, we headed out to the Kal-haven trail.  This trail always kicks my booty but Meagan was determined to help me teach IT a lesson rather than the other way around.  Meagan had e-mailed me earlier in the week to see if I wanted to do a long run together.  This morphed into an impromptu trip to IKEA, Homegoods and Trader Joe’s, with our friend Larissa.  We had a blast.

I’m mildly handy! meagan and I managed to get this puppy together fairly quickly

Love this new kitchen cart!  It was exactly what I was looking for!  Larissa has got a great eye!

Earlier in the day, my friend Emily and I checked out a HUGE craft fair in town.  There was definitely some cool stuff and I picked a couple of holiday items but I used restraint <— accomplishment for me!

Bright and early Sunday morning, Meagan and I got ready to hit the trail.  It was pretty warm and kind of misty.  Originally, I had suggested 18 miles.  Meagan asked me when the last time I had run long.  I mentioned the 9 on Tuesday and a half a “couple of weeks ago”.  Turns out it was more than a couple of weeks ago and this was a tough run for me.  Mentally, the trail feels NEVER-ENDING.  I kept thinking I had gone further than I had – bummer!  Worst feeling!

at this point I was simply concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other

This time I did bring a GU, very helpful, along with Nuun.  We made it the whole 15 in 2:50.  There was a couple of water breaks in there but none of them were longer than 20 or 30 seconds.  It was great to do a long run WITH someone!  Sometimes I forget how helpful it is to have another person there.  I probably would have wimped out at some point if Meagan hadn’t been there and she did an awesome job encouraging me.

I love this pic! I wanted to lay down in the fetal position but I love it!

So all in all a successful weekend!  I was fairly sore last night but did some stretching and will be working out some kinks with a tennis ball, baseball and a foam roller.  Who said you don’t need any supplies in running?!  Oh and once again, I had the following realization

I need to remember this!

 

p.s. thanks so much for snapping pics Meagan!