2015

Happy belated New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year! My New Years Eve was low-key, but it was spent with family and loved ones, and that made it pretty special. 🙂

I have a quick correction to make from my last post – in it, I said my mom and I had crossed off 3 states… BUT I FORGOT ABOUT THE SHAMROCK HALF IN VA!! So make that 4 states, for a total of 7 states down. Only 43 to go! 😉

But given that my last post was looking back on 2014, I figured now would be a good time to talk about 2015- goals, resolutions, the typical New Year drill. 🙂

• Incorporate a weekly hill workout into my running routine. I know hills are good for me. I know that, but I still hate them with a passion. Well, I want to try to change that in 2015. There are plenty of hills in the surrounding neighborhoods, so I’m going to suck it up, and start running them.

Hopefully this doesn’t happen to me.

• Get a little speedier. To be specific, I’m hoping to start running half marathons averaging around 8:20-8:40 minutes/mile more regularly. And I wouldn’t mind a PR in a 5k either. This goal is a bit long-term, but I’m excited to start working on it.
• Keep crossing off states. Florida is next and we leave in 9 days! I’M SO EXCITED!!!!
• Keep using online workout videos for cross-training. In 2014, I discovered Fitnessblender, and finally started doing some different types of workouts (for example, I discovered I actually enjoy their 10 minute Tank Top Arms workout!) Through my ambassadorship with Sweat Pink, I’m currently getting to test out workouts from Gigabody.com right now! Like Fitnessblender, Gigabody offers users access to tons of different types of workouts of varying difficulty (though you need to join for $8.99/month in order to view the workouts). I’m still checking it out, but a full review is on the way!

And in terms of blogging goals…

• I’m looking to rebrand Adventures of a Mother-Daughter Running Duo in 2015! At the blogging conference I attended at the Heartbreak Hill Half, several successful bloggers stressed the importance of not being afraid of change.

Or in this case, the blog matures with us. 😉 The blog will still be about running with my mom and our plan to run a half in every state (OBVIOUSLY), but I’m looking to shorten the name, and give it a slightly different look. So, I will be starting to work on that very soon, but I will try to keep posting regularly in the mean time.

So that’s a quick look at some of my plans for 2015! I’m very excited for the New Year and all the new things it will bring. 🙂

Do you have any resolutions for the New Year?

Reflecting on 2014

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Can you believe 2015 is already here?! 2014 seems like it just flew by for me. 🙂 It was a great year overall, and before making some New Years Resolutions, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at what happened this year.

• My mom and I crossed off 3 more states in our mission to run 13.1 miles (or more) in every state – Vermont (with the Mad Half Marathon), Connecticut (with the Amica Iron Horse Half), and New York (with the Rochester Marathon)

 

• We also experienced running up Heartbreak Hill with the Runners’ World Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon and Festival. That hill was tough even as a half marathon, and I have a new respect for the Boston marathoners who have to run it after having already completed 18 miles!

• We also got to hear Shalane Flanagan speak at the event, which was so incredible! She was so down-to-earth and funny, and I’ll definitely be rooting for her in 2015.
• In September, my mom and I finished our first marathon – the Rochester Marathon!! After playing with the idea of a marathon for so long (and even mentioning it in my 2014 Non-Resolutions post), it feels incredible to think I actually did it. And I know for sure that there will be more. Even though my toenail still hasn’t completely grown back. 😉

• I began my senior year of college at SUNY Geneseo… and then I graduated. I absolutely loved my undergrad experience, and I am very excited to go back and see my friends in May and walk at my graduation.
• I continued to grow this blog! When I first started blogging, I didn’t really know what I was doing (at all). But I’ve learned so much since then, and I’m so happy to see my little corner of the internet improving! Now that I’m home, I’m really excited to devote some time to making it even better (but I’ll talk more about that later!)

I want to come up with some goals for the new year. But for now, I’m pretty happy to just celebrate 2014.

I hope you enjoyed 2014 too and have a wonderful New Year’s Eve!

Thanksgiving Break

Hello hello!

I know we are still a couple days away, but I just wanted to say…

I’m not going home for the holiday this year, since I will be home for good in about a month, but I’ll still be spending the break with family and I’m looking forward to some delicious food and a little break from the pre-finals grind! My mom wrote up a little post for today, talking about some of the things she is grateful for, and here it is!

When Nora and I began our “running journey” in November 2011, our goal was simple; train for and run a half-marathon in the spring. And we did that. But we  never expected  that that modest ambition would get us here.
Last month Nora posted her 100th blog entry, as well as hitting the 100 followers mark!!
So with Thanksgiving only a few days away I wanted to say thank you, to Nora and to all of you!

When we revised our goal and decided to aim to run a half-marathon in every state – and to start this blog, we knew we would be in for some adventures, some hard work, and a lot of fun.

But for me it’s meant something entirely unexpected. Of course, I would have kept running after those two half-marathons in 2011, but without these goals, I know my running would have continued in a much more casual way.

Instead, I’ve challenged myself to run more than I ever expected, to read more (of course books about running), to expand my knowledge of cooking and nutrition, and to revisit the writer in me. Three years ago I would never have dreamed  that I would be contemplating running another marathon as a way to celebrate my next birthday! But that is exactly what I am doing and all these things are gifts that I never expected.

My plan for marathon training. 🙂

So I wanted to say thank you to Nora for expanding our running goal to include every state, and for starting this blog which has been so much fun (and a lot of work!) and which has taught us both so much. (Remember the cricket bars? Yes, you can eat protein bars made with crickets.). And I wanted to say Thank You to all of you, our followers for reading about our adventures and contributing your thoughts and ideas.

So Thank you for everything and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

What are you thankful for this year?

 

Running Goals

Hello again!

Hope you all had a festive Halloween! Can you believe we’re moving on to Thanksgiving and then… *gasp… CHRISTMAS!

 

Going back to Saturday’s post, I wanted to let you all know the Janji project reached 100% funding, yay! If you purchased a shirt for yourself or someone else, thank you!

It’s crazy how fast this year is flying by. I’m happy to say, looking back, I’ve done really well with my Non-New Years Resolutions though! I remember cautiously voicing the idea of running a marathon in 2014, not being sure if I could actually do it!

Check that off the list! 🙂

However, I am getting awfully antsy to do another race. There may be one in the works, but stay tuned for more on that! For the next half marathon I do, I would love to maybe try for a personal record. I ran my best time for the half this past summer at the Amica Iron Horse Half in Connecticut in 1 hour 55 minutes, which is around 8:40/mile.

I would love to squeeze this down to 1:50 (am I jinxing myself by putting this in writing? Please tell me I’m not.)

Maybe it’s the competitive streak in me, but I love how running races gives you the chance to compete against yourself. I can’t really think of any other sport where that’s the case. Obviously, there are other runners there to race against, but I don’t think I’m ever going to be the first female finisher in a half or full. So, I can just focus on improving my performance and forget about the other racers. I’ve never been very good about fitting speedwork into my running – I generally prefer to go out and run at a comfortable pace for however many miles I am planning on doing that day. But I wonder how much stronger I would feel as a runner if I got better about doing this? So, I’m starting to browse around for 1:50 half marathon training plans. If you have a plan that’s worked well for you, I’d love to hear about it!

That’s about all I have time for (got an exam this week), but stay tuned for Friday’s Fall Fitness Challenge update. 🙂

Do you enjoy speedwork? Do you like to “compete” against yourself in running?

Fall Fitness Friday #1

Hello hello!

I apologize for my erratic posting lately. It seems like whenever I finish an exam, I have a wave of big assignments due right after. Ugh.

But, I’m getting though it. 🙂 And, I just had a wonderful long weekend in which I did many Fall things…

All aboard the Cow Train!

I survived a corn maze, got to see some adorable baby goats (what you don’t know is that the goat hit the other goat in the face right after I took this picture – vicious baby goat!), and ate some apple fritters. 🙂 It was a beautiful day and I had a fantastic time.

Back at home, Keeper and my mom have also been enjoying this beautiful Fall. I’m sure Brady was running around somewhere, enjoying the weather as well.

Now you may remember from my last post that this week marks the first week of the Fall Fitness Challenge and Link-Up!

As I mentioned before, my goal was to do 10 minutes of exercise everyday. This week could have been a tiny bit better, but hey, it’s a challenge for a reason!

Here’s how it all panned out:

• Saturday- 23 minute full-body interval cardio workout, courtesy of Fitnessblender. Check out the workout here. 🙂
• Sunday – walking around the corn maze counts right?
• Monday –  A few crunches and push-ups (probably not ten minutes worth though.)
• Tuesday – Drove back to school and didn’t find the time to work out. My bad.
• Wednesday – I did a 10 minute tank top arms workout followed by a 5 minute butt/thigh workout. It was a crazy day and I ended up doing this at 9:30 pm. I didn’t really think this workout would be strenuous enough to keep me awake, but maybe it was, since I ended up not falling asleep till after 1 in the morning. Sigh… 
• Thursday – Fantastic 5 and a half mile run in the beautiful mild weather. I wore my Rochester Marathon shirt, and that made it even better. 🙂

 

So, there’s room for improvement. The long weekend kinda threw a wrench in my plans, as I wasn’t home and didn’t want to be that guest who bounces around doing jumping jacks. 🙂 Be sure to check out how my fellow Sweat Pink ambassadors did with their first week of the challenge – 🙂

• Kristen K. at Run Away With Me
• Kristen at Exploring Domesticity
• Ariana at HappyLife.HealthyLife
• Brandi at Noteworthy Running
• Michelle at Fearless Beauty Fitness
• Kathy at MamaMarathoner
• Diane at Runnin Rocker
• Alicia at NeverEverBeenSkinny

 ALSO, if you want to stay up-to-date with the challenge (and participate in it yourself!), use #FFFchallenge (Fall Fitness Fridays Challenge) across your social media channels to stay connected!

This weekend, I’m excited to announce I’ll be participating in the American Cancer Society’s Breast Cancer Walk, so stay tuned for a recap of that! 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone!

Why I Know I Can Run A Marathon

Hey there!

As you probably know, my mom and I are running our first marathon, the Rochester Marathon tomorrow. We are so excited (and definitely nervous too!). If you want to keep up with the adventures and hear about the race in real-time (and can’t wait for a race recap), I will be tweeting and Instagramming like a crazy blogger-type person, so you should definitely follow me to hear how it all goes!

The past few days, my mom and I have been focusing on reasons to be confident going into this race.

My Mom Says:

I’ve been married 29 years and that is worth several 26.2 mile runs.

I spent 10 years writing a historical novel, which requires just as much discipline and commitment as running a marathon. And maybe someday when I spend less time running, I may actually have time to figure out how to get it published! 🙂

I know I can run a marathon because when I fished reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace (all 1,250 pages, mind you!), I thought there should have been a sequel.

And here’s what I think:

I played violin for 12 years and know what it takes to stick with something, even when you’re doubting yourself and it would be easier just to quit.

Every time I finish a half marathon, I’m thinking about signing up for another one.

I ♥ carboloading. Bagels, pasta, sweet potatoes – that’s my jam!

How much harder can it be than a college-level economics course? (Not that much harder I’m guessing ’cause econ was pretty darn hard.).

Wish us luck!

So Why Now… (My Mom’s Decision to Sign Up for the Full Marathon)

Hey there!

So, about a week after my mom was swearing she would never run a full marathon (and making me double-check that I had registered her for the Rochester HALF and not the full), she made the decision to take the plunge and transfer her registration to the full 26.2 miles! I asked her to write up a little post explaining what had changed, and this is what she said. 🙂

I guess it’s because when you run with someone who is always looking ahead for the next challenge, you can’t help but feel a little of that excitement that comes from taking on a new challenge. Last year, Nora took on a sprint triathlon, a whole new adventure for her.

But that’s how she is, always checking out new things, considering possibilities, and then taking that educated leap in the pursuit of a new goal. Just like with the triathlon, she’s willing to try new things and to work hard to reach those goals. So in the end, even though I’m the parent and should set the example, I find myself inspired to follow. Needless to say, I took into consideration the fact that I have now run 9 half-marathons without injury, and that it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that I am healthy enough to pursue this goal! And of course, though we run together, we will each run our own race, with our own plans, our own paces, and our own individual goals, but always finding each other at the finish.

And who knows? In the end, I might become one of those impressive souls I meet at races; someone who despite discovering running late in her life, now runs all kinds of races – including a few marathons a year – making friends as she travels and runs, always remembering what Helen Keller said – “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

Important Updates and a Waffle-tastic Run

Hello again!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend so far!

Last week, we had dinner with some family friends, and finally presented our biggest fan with his “prize”-

Hope you’re enjoying the shirt Mr. C.!

Another important update- remember how I said I couldn’t get my mom to run the full marathon with me in Rochester in September? Well… THAT IS NO LONGER THE CASE!! After some registration-transfer finagling, she is signed up to run the full 26.2 with me! Woo!! So we are both in training mode now.

This week was a little hard for me. I ran on Tuesday after the Mad Half and definitely had shin splints, as well as pain in the top of my foot right above the joint before my big toe. From some online googling (the most reliable source for medical diagnoses, I know), I think I have a case of sesamoiditis.

Sesame-WHAT?!

Turns out, there are two bones at the joint above your big toe that act kind of like ball bearings in your foot. Over the course of a run, they undergo tremendous stress, AND hills can make that even worse. Imagine that. The treatment for both sesamoiditis and shin splints is just icing, rest, and anti-inflammatory meds like ibuprofen.

So, I iced after my run Tuesday and hoped for the best. Our training plan called for a 7-miler on Wednesday, which I knew was going to be tough. Honestly, I went into the run in a very negative place, expecting the pain, and that is exactly what I got. It was the worst run I’ve had in a long time, filled with walk-breaks, frustration, and self-pity. Yeah, not pretty. 😦

I did do the full seven miles though because I’m stubborn like that.

After that run, I decided to give myself a couple of days to rest and ice, hoping that things would feel better in time for this weekend’s 15 mile long run. Best decision I’ve ever made.

Today, my mom and I ran 15 miles, the longest distance we have EVER run. My shin splints were completely gone, although I definitely still have the sesamoiditis, which became increasingly uncomfortable over the course of the run.

My frame of mind going into this run was a 180 degree change from Tuesday’s run though. I felt rested, and I was excited to run further than I ever had before. Sure, I was a little nervous about my foot and my shins, but I also felt determined. With this new mindset, I was able to run 15 miles more easily than I ran 7. That’s the nature of running sometimes though. You have to go in with a good attitude (and a sense of humor).

We set up a little aid station for ourselves on our front stoop, complete with Gatorade, water, and sunscreen. At the 10-mile mark, we got this exciting message when we stopped by for a water break/pit stop.

Well if that didn’t motivate us to go run those last 5 miles, I don’t know what did! 🙂

It helped that the last 5 miles really only felt like 2.5 because we did an out-and-back loop, and then before we knew it, we had passed the 13.1 mark (the longest we’ve ever run), and made it to 15!!!

Our stomachs were a little iffy at first so we had to wait to eat those amazing waffles, but I made us a couple of smoothies while we waited and stretched.

I put in a handful of frozen raspberries, blackberries, a banana, a scoop of chocolate protein powder, plus a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder, and some chocolate chips to round it all out. Super yummy!

And then there were the long-awaited waffles!

I topped mine with 1/2 a sliced banana, a dash of cinnamon, and some maple syrup.

Now I want to find a race that offers waffles as the post-race food, because this was FANTASTIC and how no one seems to have caught on to this as a post-race food, I just cannot understand.

So, a busy, run-filled day… Hope you had a wonderful Saturday!

 

When Enough isn’t Enough

Other half of the Duo here today! 🙂

Why isn’t a good thing ever enough?

Chatting with a friend before a race recently, I realized something about runners. We’re  almost never satisfied. For example my friend was nervous that she would not PR this race and she felt that this was a sign that, despite all her training, she wasn’t improving.  I pointed out that conditions vary year to year, including your health, frame of mind, and especially the weather.

Even with great training, a bad night’s sleep might make the difference between a PR one year and a slower race the next.  I tried to stress that as 50+ runner, it was nice that we were running at all:  a few seconds more shouldn’t make us feel bad.

But it does. Because we compare ourselves to other runners, and when our own performances don’t seem to measure up, we diminish our accomplishments, and, we are less happy.

As for me, I ran the race and though I had no idea whether it was a PR, I was pretty pleased with my time. Until that evening, when I looked at the age group results and learned that I hadn’t placed in the top 20-30% of women my age, which is where I typically end up.  And suddenly, I felt decidedly less pleased with my own performance. And that made me sad. After smugly preaching to my friend I realized I was just as prone to comparisons and dissatisfaction as anyone else.  But then I realized I was still pretty happy, or at least – that I was happy enough.

I still find myself doing this sometimes, even after our most recent 10 mile race. But it’s something I’m working on, and that’s all you can do really at the end of the day – forget about the times that others ran (or that you have ran in the past!) and find a happiness with how you performed in the present.

Do you find yourself doing this too? How do you fight back the urge to compare your performance to others?

My Non-Resolutions

Hello again! 

As 2014 has just begun, I thought I would dedicate a post to my goals for the New Year. I know it is a notorious time of year for those “New Years Resolutions”, which is why I want to think of these as Non-New Years Resolutions. I had set some goals for myself when I went back to school in the fall, and with the start of the spring semester rapidly approaching, I figured now would be a good time to look back at what I did well, what I can improve on, and the new goals I hope to achieve in 2014. So these aren’t necessarily NEW YEARS resolutions, they’re kind of just resolutions in general.

1. Stick to my running plan to get in shape for my half marathon in March. During the fall, I did pretty good maintaining my running. In early September, I ran a PR in the Big Tree Half Marathon, which was incredibly gratifying and exciting (check out my recap for that race here). After that, I had a little bit of post-race blues, but I ran a couple of 5K’s, and I did pretty well waking up early twice a week to get in 5-mile runs in the mornings before class. When I got sick and went into finals, I kind of fell off the bandwagon, and didn’t really get back into the swing of running until coming home for winter break. So, some changes I’d like to make going into the spring:

• Follow my half-marathon training plan from Runners’ World
• Incorporate more hills into my running (even though I hate hills with a passion)
• Mix up my workouts to keep them from getting boring or too easy
• Expect some obstacles, but be prepared to work through them! 

2.Do more cross-training. I have read so many articles extolling the virtues of cross-training for runners, and while I’ve done some cross-training in the past, I’m not good about sticking with it. I have some pilates tapes, and this semester, I’m going to aim to do those workouts three times a week, on the days when I’m not running. Pilates is all about working your core, and the videos are pretty intense! I’m always sweating when I finish the workouts.

3. This is more of a long-term goal, but here it is – I want to run a FULL MARATHON in 2014. I’m thinking of registering for the Rochester Marathon, which is in September.This would give me the full summer to train, which wouldn’t be easy in the hot temps, but it would be doable I think. We’ll just have to wait and see!

4. And finally, I’m going to try to update this blog on a more regular basis! There’s going to be more guest posts from the other half of this running duo (AKA my mom), since we’re going to be doing the bulk of our training for this half independently, so we will use the blog to check in and see how we’re each doing.

So those are the goals for 2014! Some are a little loftier than others, but hey, (pardon the cliché), you have to shoot for the moon to land among the stars! My mom and I went for our first “official” training run yesterday of 6 miles. We are committed and excited, and so ready to cross another state off the list!

Happy with our first training run for the Shamrock Half Marathon!

2014, here we come! What goals do you have for the new year?