The truth about off brands

Ok yesterday I went to buy allergy medicine because Atlanta has been KILLIN me lately. 

I picked up the first allergy medicine I saw that was kroger brand (aka cheaper) and bounced.  

Well, I grabbed that and some sugar free chocolate mousse but it's fine. 

Its fiiiinnneee. 

Went out this morning in my, finally, newly replaced Brooks Adrenlines and my NEW RUNNING SKORT!! But before, of course, I had a snack and popped one of these allergy meds. 

Bad. Move. 

RTFM.

(read the effin manual) 

This allergy medicine was pink, like benadryl. That's right, the drowsy medication. 

I felt like I had two-year-olds hanging on my ankles. It was the hardest run/workout to power through, not because I hurt, but because literally if I shut my eyes for two long I was worried I'd fall asleep, and the rest of my muscles felt the same way. 

Rough.

Very rough.  I'm still hazy right now.

The skort however held up wonderfully. It helps that they had super hot booty shorts underneath the skirt, and y'all know how I feel about those. (LOVE)

Time to do a lab, grade papers, and get a sweet brinner made for me tonight. 

Run happy everybody :)

 And don't forget, don't pop benadryl and run. Bad plan.

Shopping!!

As a Bday present to myself since I've been so good training thus far AND because I got paid a nice paycheck this week I splurged and bought...all of this :

I just do not own enough running gear. I only have 2 pairs of shorts! and I workout 6 days a week!!! SO MUCH LAUNDRY.  So, I finally decided it was time to drop some big bucks and gear up like a proper Brooks ID runner. I will probably be building my wardrobe like this every other paycheck (once a month) just so I have enough clothes on a week to week basis. I ALSO paid 5 whole extra dollars (oh my!) to get it 'expedited' here. I have no idea when they're going to ship it but pinkies crossed for today so I can get it by next Friday. I am SO excited!!! Mmmm clothes. In other, more upsetting news, I was planning on going to ABC (brewery) tonight with a bunch of friends for my birthday (I know it was Tuesday but I'm a college girl, I can't take time out of my classes to party on a Tuesday!) however I needed to get out of work from 4-8 to be able to do this.  Of course, none of my coworkers will cover it. 2 semesters I've been working the dreaded Friday Close shift and yet, no one will throw me a bone for my birthday. Such is life. On to study. Happy Friday everyone!

Sleep

Monday morning's workout turned into a Monday EVENING workout due to one too many (meaning more than one, meaning two) whiskey coke's while watching the Superbowl.

Somehow my tolerance is like negative drinks now. I think if I even look at alcohol my head starts hurting.

Anyway so I went last night I did some abs and ran around the track a bazillion zillion times to get some miles in.  I then decided that since it was 8pm and I didn't feel like fighting for a treadmill for hill stuff or braving Atlanta night-time that I'd just do some stadiums inside the pool viewers deck!

What a GREAT idea right?!

False. 

I made it through three sets, my legs were shaking so hard I couldn't stand still, literally. 

It's amazing I used to do those every week when I was swimming.

So then last night around 11 I was icing my knees and heating my shoulders (which hurt) and felt exhausted.  I was very excited to sleep hard and rest before my 6am workout, which is the normal Tuesday time. 

Fell asleep...and then woke up at 1:30 convinced it was 6. 

Re collected my thoughts. Fell asleep.

Then woke up at 4 conVINCED it was 6. 

Goodness. You'd think I'd stop being so anxious about missing my alarm and would just sleep.

Then of course at 6am I turned my alaram off and fell asleep till 6:30.

That's life right?

Rushed over to the gym to get in some biking and a light leg lifting session.  So far so good this week. Quality workouts that I'm definitely feeling the next day. 

Or days after I mean. 

Hopefully I'll sleep like the dead tonight though. God knows I need it. 

Lab at 8am! Woo!

Everyone go get a good run in today!!

Run Happy!

HeavyWeight

This week I have been put through pseudo hell and back. 

My training goes light week, medium week, heavy week. This week was heavy week. The past 2 weeks have felt you know, hard, but nothing like this week. I am sore EVERYWHERE. My back hurts, my arms hurt, my legs, my ass, my abs. Everything hurts.

Today I ran 8.6 miles and it was probably the longest 8.6 miles of my training yet. It took all of my energy to get through it. I got a second wind around 4.5 miles at my turn around point in the Highlands. Seriously though my legs felt like lead. Lead jelly. 

Needless to say it took a very long hot shower of stretching to get all the kinks out of my body and I'll still be asking for a massage from Christopher later. 

This long run also brings my total mileage this week to 20 miles!!!! 

Epic. I feel epic. 

In other amazing news, I had my first Atlanta Track Club Kilometer Kids meeting Thursday! 

I'm so excited to get to work with kids. I really need to get my head out of the Engineering cloud I live in every day. 

Tomorrow is rest + super bowl day and I will be vegging on a couch and probably enjoying a whiskey coke or two. 

I hope everyone has a GREAT Sunday and enjoys it as much as I hopefully will.

Run Happy!

Bad Poster

Man, I am just AWFUL at keeping up sometimes. I vow this week I will stop posting only once a week.

Vow, promise, swear etc. 

I'm currently sitting at work, sipping my coffee, prepping for a long day in this office which I just opened at 8am. And I will be closing at 8pm.

Tricky right?

Anyway as I sip my coffee and peruse the running world websites I frequent I find myself wondering if sometimes, even though I fail to write on here, I peruse too much and don't do enough school work. 

Goodness, there, I said it. I'm preoccupied with my training. School is getting more and more difficult to focus on.  I'm stuck in this mode where I don't want to graduate, but I really want to graduate, so I'm at a standstill.  Kind of stuck in limbo honestly. I'm always/generally more than willing to get up and go for a run or go to the gym...but try and get me up early to do a lab? No thanks.  I like school, I really do, I'm just a little...well tired of it. 

Enough about that blah blah. 

My 5k last weekend was wonderful, I got a PR by 2 mins and was first in my age group! With a 26:47. Not the best time in the whole wide world, but I was very happy with it. I started off at a 9 min/mile pace because I was pacing someone else and then progressively got faster. It felt good, and smart, and like I could definitely run one faster.

Good news, I have that opportunity in a few weekends! Another free 5k! 

I'm very happy I'm an Atlanta Track Club member. 

I have a 7 mile run planned tomorrow and I am legitimately excited for it. The weather in Atlanta is supposed to be beautiful!

Look at THAT!

That's all for now. Later I will be posting everything I will be/want to order from the Brooks website.

I may-or-may-not have a very long list.

I need an overhall on my running apparel!

Doing it all

Last semester was the first semester I really felt like everything CLICKED. Well, at least in the past few months it's felt like that.

I had a rough spot from about last New Years till August/September. 

Wow that's a long rough spot looking back.

Anyway, I had a bad relationship, I lost my car before I even saw it, I had lots of health problems and friend drama all thrown in.  By July/August I'd started to get my feet back underneath me. By October I was sprinting. My grades were out of this world good, was working 20 hours a week and was training for my first Half Marathon. I was happy. 

Very happy.

I was also very organized. I knew what I wanted, when I needed things done by, how every day would go.  I had plans for just about everything. It seems kind of cyclic/boring to most but for me it worked. And the busier I was the better. Nothing could get in my way! Half marathon? So ready. Finals? Breezy. (comparitively) Yes I had a few  panic moments but otherwise, I did great! This was my best semester grade wise. I applied, and GOT, an internship with Atlanta Track Club working with kids AND now this sweet Brooks deal.  I have a wonderful boyfriend who supports me all the time and the best friends anyone could ask for. I really am doing it all right now.

I've found, after having some of the worst luck possible, that a positive outlook and a set plan really works. Yes some luck is involved, but when I set a goal I'm positive, I'm calculative and I'm persistent.  I know my limits but I also know when they should be pushed. I make sure that I wake up every morning with a positive outlook and knowing what I have planned for the day.  Maybe that's not everyone's cup of tea, but so far it's worked wonders for me!

Here's a nice little article by Active about setting goals. It's short and to the point, and if you can master all of these aspects of goal setting for running you can set goals for just about anything else in life.

http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Defining_Your_Goal.htm

I think today is a rest day for me. My butt is still in quite a bit of pain.

I hope this ice/snow goes away soon. I need to run long this weekend!

Sitting Down

So, in case you haven't heard, Atlanta has been covered in ice/snow for a few days now. I haven't been in school for THREE days. Georgia Tech is like pulling a prank or something. 

Anyway despite the snow and ice and awful conditions I've been getting back into the swing of a training routine for my second half. Last night my roommate Thea and I sat down and really worked everything out for the next 10 weeks. It was a lot more involved and intense this time than it was for the first half marathon. My first one was really more for completion than for time. This time around I'm trying to shave off 17 minutes and run it in 2 hours or less.

Monday, Day 1 of the Snowpocalypse, I ran some hill workouts on the treadmill and did a few thera-ball exercises with the BF in his baby gym in the house complex he lives in. I sweat my little ass off. Clearly I've been running outside in the cold too much because I forgot how much sweating I do inside.  Tuesday I got on the stationary bike as a XT and did legs.  This involved some lunges...and some machines...

I can NOT sit down without pain, my ass hurts so bad. 

Today I ran 3 miles with some speedwork thrown in, a bunch of abs, and arms. 

These first few weeks are going to SUCK. But I'm fully ready to commit to the work that I will need for this. I want to run this well. I want my time cut down. I want a PR. And I know that by adding lifting, some speedwork and hill work will do it. I think it's going to get me past the plateau I'm on.

This morning I was up at 6:15. Alarm went off and after 3 weeks of sleeping in, it actually felt GOOD to get out, get back showered and out for breakfast and back before 11am. I feel like a champ today.

Time to try and be even MORE productive in the snowy ice snowpocalypse that's struck Atlanta.

Why?

I started this blog after I got my favorite pen and started to write down all of my runs in my little 'running notebook'.

I got the pen from the Peachtree Expo.  It was a Brooks pen and it said "Run Happy" on it.

I was obsessed with it for some reason. I loved the slogan, and after running the Peachtree, my first 10k, I wanted to start documenting and sharing why running made me happy.  I named the blog after the Brooks slogan because I believe it, and I love their product. The running community built around them is filled with good people.

Through some various things, I am now a proud member of the Brooks I.D program.

Brooks Inspire Daily. I'm so excited to represent Brooks and their philosophy. I hope I can work more at sharing my experiences on this blog and I can't wait for the coming year filled with RUNNING!

I'm beginning my training plan for my next half marathon on March 20th. 72 days. I'll be upping my speed work and adding a lot of hill exercises as well as more weights. I'll keep y'all posted.

Run Happy!!

Post Half Running

Since I've been home in Arlington, with the wonderful tracks-to-trails program, I've been trying to get back out and run. Post half marathon has been really hard. I took a week off, and then the next two weeks were dead week and finals. I ran twice during dead week, none during finals. Cluster of waaayyy too much work and I really needed sleep before I needed running.

Now that I'm home I've run twice, once just to get out and jog around Arlington, a leisurely 3.5 miles in the awful awful wind that has gripped this small county/city.  I took a day off and then the day after, the day I had PLANNED on running, the wind was insane. I mean 30+MPH gusts of wind.  I don't mind the cold, really I don't. I do better in the cold, but the wind? I can't BREATHE in the wind. It takes my breath away, it's awful. So I held off till the next day (Christmas Eve) , hoping for better weather. Only to wake up to my house sounding like it was going to fall over due to the wind. 

After going out and running errands that morning...which by the way no one should go out and buy anything on christmas eve. I almost screamed while in Harris Teeter. 

Anyway After errands, putting my gingerbread hosue together with royal icing (omg SUGAR DEATH) and making a pumpkin pie with the fam I went out for a run.

I wanted to put in 6 miles but put in 5.5 instead. It was glorious. Wasn't too cold, no real wind, my brooks shoes are still being awesome and I was surprised at how good I felt with so little running since my half.  

I'm a little achey today, my hip flexors and abductors (eh?) feel rough but otherwise my body is bouncing back wonderfully.   I had a hard time for a bit. Thinking I wouldn't want to get back into the swing after finals. I felt lazy, tired...just wanted to sit around all the time. Weak from a hard semester. 

Well I've finally rested enough. I'm back to craving runs. 

Excited to go out tomorrow and use my NEW GARMIN! 

I've been borrowing my boyfriend's long-term style but now that he's bought a road bike he's going to need his back and my parents got me my own!

SO excited! 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday.

Run Happy Y'all! 

Winter runs

I have now successfully gotten up twice this week in the frigid 20 degree weather to run.

Man, nothing makes a hot shower feel deserved like an ice cold run.

Tuesday:

I had been conned with ice cream into staying at the boyfriend's place that night knowing that I'd have an opportunity to run the Silver Comet trail in the morning.  Stayed up a bit too late studying (1am) and when my alarm when off at 6 I felt like I hadn't even fallen asleep yet.

To be completely honest I was extremely nervous about this run. I've never run in cold like this, ever. I didn't know if I was prepared for it or not. I have some NikePro long tight/warm weather gear pant things and underarmor. So as I donned all of my apparel I kept thinking "is this too much? is this not enough? is that tiny space between my tights and my socks going to feel like ice the whole run?".  

Walked outside and the cold immediately took my breath away (I had a hat and gloves, but nothing prepared me for that first step). It was 18 outside. 

18.

A TEEN NUMBER.

In ATLANTA.

Hello? Mother Nature? Yes, this is the south calling, we're upset.

Anyway I took a deep (cold, harsh, dry) breath and set off. 

My legs responded beautifully. 

I've been taking it pretty easy since the half and I wanted to make my morning week runs shorter but faster. So I chose 4 miles. 2 out, 2 back, very straight path but with rolling hills the whole way.  

I knew I was moving quick but when I hit the 2 mile turn around at right over 18 minutes I did a double take on my Garmin.

Err what? 

So that's when I decided I wanted to kick my 5k time's ass. The last 5k I did was in June, it was my first race ever. My goal was 30 minutes, I ran it in 28:45 (or something like that, 28 high).  I hit the lap button so I'd know how fast my third mile was and took off with gusto.  New 5k time: 27:36. I shaved a minute on that last mile and then kept going to do another 9 minute mile.

I guess I didn't need to be afraid of the cold. My body seems to like it. It reminds me of diving into a cold pool for a race. That immediate jolt of OH SHIT. 

My hot shower felt so good ...the only reason I got out was because I was starving.

Today:

Got up, struggled to get out of bed. I'm having a rough dead week/pre finals week. Very stressed. I caved and had mac and cheese for dinner (AH I knowwww it's bad) and wans't sleeping well. Got outside, again, 21 degrees...cold. Ran 4 miles, did 4 freshman hill (read: HELL hill) sprints...somehow managed to get my cold ass back home and ready for school.

My new shoes are holding up wonderfully. My underarmor and Nike pants are keeping me mostly warm...

If only finals were as easy as running.

Speaking of I need to go study.

Till another time,

Run Happy!

Winter

So I'm not sure if anywhere else in the country was like this, but this "fall" Atlanta has been...well...finicky. 

That's a good word for it.

One day, its perfect fall, 50+ degrees and clear. The next its 80 and hot and muggy. And miserable.

December 1st rolls around and mother nature goes "oh shit, I guess I should make it cold" and BAM we have a 30ish degree day with wind. It was pretty  miserable. And the whole time I'm wondering "how am I ever going to run in this weather.."

Either way, I went against my loved ones/friends and ran yesterday and didn't wait the 1-week-rest period after my half marathon (which I still owe pictures of my awesome medal). I just went out for 20 minutes to test the new Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11's.  I sadly had to retire my GTS 10's right after the half. Not going to lie I got a little teary-eyed. They've done me well for the past 6 months and I've thoroughly worn them out. That and I almost had to wear RED shoes. Thank god Pacers had them in blue. I can't wear the forbidden colors of U[sic]GA.

I always thought they looked pretty new, and then I put my new ones against my old ones. Many my shoes are white. Gotta get out on the trails and fix that! 

Anyway the new shoes are great so far. I want to get more miles in them before I do an official-ish review.

Speaking of miles. Mine have been too low this week.  Here's a cute video that always makes me want to run more. 

Time for some more studying/finishing up at work then maybe a short run before trivia tonight. 

Till next time, run happy y'all!