The countdown!!!

I cannot believe that the marathon is now less than a week away!! I'm so nervous but so so excited. This past Saturday I ran my last "long" 8 mile run with the Houston Fit Fall marathon training group. The last time I'd even run a single digit long run was back in June when the weather was hot, sticky, and mosquito's were everywhere. Well, other than the temperate dropping a few degrees, it's still pretty much the same :) This last run started late, since typically now at 6:30 am I've run at least 7-8 miles, but it was a nice break from seeing 3's on my alarm clock.

I'll leave for San Antonio on Friday morning to make it to the expo in time to pick up my race packet. I would usually wait until Saturday to pick up my packet but this coming weekend is also my CPA swearing in ceremony in Austin so I'll be making my way up there on Saturday morning. I didn't want to be rushed after the ceremony where my Dad, Mandy, Gumby, Leah, and Arissa will all be joining me in day 1 of a 2 day celebration. Who said CPA's were lame?! We'll then head back to San Antonio and rest up and hang out before my carb loading dinner :)

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers this week and weekend as I complete my crazy goal of 26.2!!!

A little catch up...

Oh boy. It's been a few weeks since my last post! I guess between now and then a few exciting things have happened!

1. Lake House Weekend-Last weekend almost all of my closest friends were able to attend my B-day celebration at Chelsea's lake house. It was so much fun to relax, eat, laugh and even go out on the boat! It was seriously a much needed relaxing weekend with perfect weather and great company!

Below is a picture of Lulo and I where I'm posing like mom and her model arms! Keep in mind make up and showering are always optional at the lake ;)

Chelsea is a great captain!

I'll try to post more pics soon!

2. Another Milestone met!!

This past Saturday I completed my 21 mile run! All week I was feeling anxious about this run because this is what the coaches call dress rehearsal. They have all said that we are all to the point where we will complete the marathon and everything else is all mental. I made sure to try to eat healthy all week, didn't drink much (alcohol that is), drank lots of water, and tried to rest up. This past Friday happened to be my birthday so it was full of Mexican food, chips, queso, red velvet cake, ice cream, and this was only lunch! Friday afternoon I was too ancy due both my birthday and the run so I decided to head out early and get myself prepared for Saturday morning.

The weather here in Houston is finally changing to fall which adds a twist to getting dressed for a morning run. It was set to be 47 degrees when we started and up in the low 60's when we would be wrapping up so Friday night I set out my capri running tights, short sleeved shirt, gloves, and running shoes. I usually run in sleeveless tops so for some reason I thought the sleeves would keep me warm..haha... They say when you run you can at bout 20 degrees to the temperature and that is what your body feels like it's running in. So, I factored that in Saturday morning and it was only in the low 50's when I started and decided to not go with the capri's and just used gloves as my only cold weather gear. It actually ended up being perfect since my hands are almost always cold when I run.

So off we went at 5am sharp! Our run started off at a nice easy pace with all of still trying to keep a slower pace since we all felt a little anxious knowing that after 18 miles, each step would be a new record for us! We are so lucky to have both rest stops and bike support during these long runs! We were running our route and were just about to turn near the West U area and one of our bike support coaches said we needed to stay on the road we were on and take a different turn that what we had originally thought. Well, come to find out about 10 minutes later, we were right and he'd sent us on almost an extra mile detour! But we knew that eventually we have to do 26.2, so an extra mile wouldn't hurt us :) The first half went by really fast and our extended loop through Herman Park and the Houston Zoo was relaxing and a great early morning run. By the time we reached that area, the sun had just come up and we could hear a few animals every now and then as we ran around the park. At about mile 18-19 we were starting to feel a little tired, but everybody was still feeling good and not struggling! I felt pretty good and really think I could have kept going! This was a huge confidence boost and I'm still nervous, but so so excited about the marathon! Only 2 more runs with my Houston Fit team then the BIG DAY!!!

I can't wait!!

You could do it if you wanted to....

Recently as more and more people have heard that I am training for the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon I have heard them say, "Oh I could never do that. I can't even run 5 minutes". This is totally not true folks! You could do it if you wanted to. Plain and Simple. All you have to do is put your mind to it and get ready to run!

I too used to hate running! Now I think it may be one of my favorite forms of excercise and something I look forward to almost daily. The other day I found this great article on the Runner's World website. It's about running your first 5-K. If you've never run a race before then I would suggest to start with a great Charity run like the Susan G. Komen. Not only are you contributing to an awesome foundation/cause but you're being good to yourself and it's always neat to see so many people come together for an even like this. You can google runs in your area to see what's out there and find something that interests you.

Another reason I've enjoyed my running experience so far is because I have had the opportunity to train for my half marathons and now marathon with friends. It is a great way to catch up with a friend instead of going to dinner or grabbing drinks. (It's also friendlier on the bank account than the usual options).

On another note, this is a bike ride Chelsea sent me the link to the other day. It's called the Tour de Donut and you knock 5 minutes off your time for every donut you eat. Probably not the healthiest thing, but its all in good fun.

Alright, off to get ready for another big 18 miler this weekend!

Be Sweet to Your Feet!

Oops, so I forgot to post last week. I had a great weekend and got to spend time with some great friends! Amanda came to Houston for a shopping trip and we had dinner with Chels and Taylor at one of my favorite restaurants in Houston, Cyclone Anaya's. Yummy Margs and Fish Tacos!!

Last week I ran 15 miles and this weekend I ran 11 (actually only 10.2, we were all sooo disappointed that the coach cut the run short..note the sarcasm).

Anyway...back to the title of my post. So I started having mild foot pain in my left foot on Sunday, but didn't think too much of it. By Tuesday however, my foot was hurting a little bit more. Not the type of pain that kept me from walking, but a dull, annoying type of pain. In all of my running magazines and books "they" always say to have any sort of injuries looked at sooner rather than later. At first I was afraid I may have had a stress fracture in my foot but I always seem to think the worst about everything... I headed out to Koala's and had a super sweet PT look at my foot. She said my muscles and tendons were super tight and that we just needed to work them out and do lots and lots of stretching. For the past few days I've been going to the clinic everyday and having stem treatment, ultrasound, deep tissue massages, and heat applied to my poor feet.

Good news: I can keep running as long as I don't feel any discomfort! My foot is feeling 100% better and Tuesday will be my last treatment day.

Bad news: I found out I have hammer toes. Gross huh-- I imagine only old grumpy men to be diagnosed with hammertoes! I am supposed to stretch my toes, massage my feet everynight, and try to limit my heel wearning... I'm glad there are cute flats available now :) If I do all of this, my toes should start to straighten out a little.

Yesterday the Dr. came to check out my feet (and knees while I was there) and told me about how bad heels are for your feet, and even worse if you are putting stress on your toes/feet through running longer distances. Interestingly enough, this month in Self magazine there was an article about how one of the newest types of cosmetic surgeries is Foo/toe shaping. Sick! There are women who actually have their toes shortened so that they can fit into these crazy shoes and also have fat injected into the balls of their feet so the shoes don't hurt! It's like foot binding way back in the day in China! So, my goal is to be nicer to my feet since without them I can't do this whole marathon business...

Next weekend is another big 18 mile weekend!! 7 weeks until the Marathon! Yay!!

Ahh-I also keep meaning to post pics of all of my cool running gear. You'll be so jealous when you see the cool belt I wear that holds my 4 water bottles. Trust me. It's cool :)

We be clubbin'--Yeah yeah!

I should probably explain the title of this post before I dive in. More than 10 years ago my family was at Six Flags over Texas getting ready to ride some roller coaster ride and there was a group of guys in front of us that kept yelling "We be clubbin" then anohter would chime in "yeah-yeah!". We found it hilarious and continued to say that all weekend...Lulo, you may be the only person who really appreciates the title of this post :)

But yes-we be clubbin'! I am in so many clubs now that I almost feel like I am in college again although these "post college clubs" are now centered 'grown up' things such as food, drinks, and intellectual conversations, haha j/k and maybe they are not so different than college after all...

Running Club
Duh..all of you know I'm training for a marathon and in order to reach that goal I decided to join a club! Love love my running club and enjoy the ladies that I run with every weekend!

Supper Club aka Supper Lovers
Yum! Yum! One of my first visits to Houston last April when I was looking into transferring to the Houston office, Chelsea and I talked about starting a supper club. Well, so far its been a success! We've had a few rotations in members but have had a great time and have enjoyed all kinds of deliciousness!

Our supper club works like this: We meet once a month (usually) and rotate hosts. The host is responsible for planning the menu, buying the ingredients, and deciding how she wants to set up our meal (stations, everybody working on the recipe together, etc). Cooking Light recipes are a Supper Lover's favorite but we've used recipes from all over the place including old family favorites.

Book Club
This is the newest addition to my "clubbin". Our first meeting is in October and we will be reading "My Left Foot" by Christie Brown. If you check out Lauren's Blog you can see the synopsis of our other choices and a description of how this club works!

It will be fun to discuss books with different people and I think I secretly like it because the discussion portion was the only part of English classes I enjoyed. It will be like school, but fun and no papers!

We be clubbin-yeah yeah!

My weekend run:
Thank goodness the weather is finally cooling down! If the temperature is below 75 when we start then I have now considered that to be a cool start!

This weekend I ran a half marathon (13.2 miles) for our long run. It's kind of crazy but I think that anything under 13 miles I can now consider an "easier" long run. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a walk in the park, but I know that I can finish and not be dying. I don't get anywhere near as anxious about this length of runs anymore either--Good news for me. Next week we will be doing a 15 mile run ( this will be the 2nd 15 miler we do)! Hopefully it won't be raining as much this week and I'll actually get to run outside for my weekday runs instead of boring old treadmill runs.

I'm also debating whether I'm going to continue to use my old running shoes during the week and my new shoes for my long runs. I purchased my "old" shoes in June but started to have some knee discomfort a few weeks ago. I thought it was probably just due to the mileage increase but one day I happened to pick up my shoes and they were WORN OUT! Last week I bought a new pair of Mizuno's (my favorite brand of running shoes) and I think they have really made a difference! Here's the problem though..."they", the experts, say that your marathon day shoes should have no more that 100 miles on them for the actual race. Well, as crazy as it sounds, I will definitely be running more than 100 miles between now and November 14th. So...do I buy another pair and break those in at the same time? or keep using my old ones but possible have knee pain. I think I might have to give in and buy another pair (mind you these shoes run $100+)....

I hope you all have a wonderful week! This may be a little cheesy but after a long work week (several long work weeks/months) I've decided to add this quote to my desk at work to help keep me motivated, remember what I want to achieve, and how to be a positive leader on our team.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world"-Gandhi

Negative Splits and a Lovely Labor Day Weekend

Most weekends I wish I just had one more day before heading back to work. This past weekend, when I had the one extra day, I wished I had just ONE more day....

What a fabulous weekend though! Saturday morning started off with a nice easy 11 mile run. It makes me so proud to be able to say 11 miles is an easy long run. Don't get me wrong, I'm not crazy, and wouldn't want to run 11 miles everyday but for a long run-not too shabby. My running friends weren't there this past weekend so I ended up running with the female coach of the Red group. We ran right at at 10:30 mile up (so 5.5miles) but then on the way back I ran with the male coach of the Red group and we were running sub 10 min. miles. This is pretty fast for me now since I have actually slowed my pace down. Previously I would run right at a 10 min mile and sometimes a bit faster. So, this was a pretty fast run for me but it was a nice change of pace.

Some running lingo: when you run the 2nd half faster than the first, you've run a negative split. Now you can be a cool runner like me :) haha....

The rest of the weekend I spent up at Chelsea's Lake House--remember this from a few of my favorite things post. Love Love this place. A few of Chels/Kevin's friends came up along with Lindsey and new friend Kendall. It was great to see Lindsey and meet new people too! We had some amazing meals including homemade banana-walnut pancakes with homemade syrup. YUM!!! Lots of tubing, swimming, and relaxing :)

Can't wait for my next weekend at the lake for my b-day!

Also! Does anybody want to run the Austin Half-marathon with me in February??

A Few of My Favorite Things

So the other day when I mentioned that the lake was one of my favorite places ever I really started to think about places that make me so happy. These places give you the warm fuzzy feeling that not just any old place does. Here are a few on my list, in no particular order:

1. Home-I love my house. Really, who doesn't love coming home. It's so great to come home after a vacation and know that you have a wonderful place to come home to. There's nothing better than coming home and knowing that you'll get to climb into your bed that night :)

2. Trinity- Seriously, if you have not yet visited the campus then you are missing out. Not only is the campus gorgeous but each classroom, dorm, and even every hill bring back so many fun memories. The Trinity Library is also another one of my most favorite places and actually miss the studying, hanging out, crying, laughing, sleeping and everything else that happened in that crazy place.

3. Sevilla, Spain- This is hands down my most favorite city in Europe which may be due to the fact that I spent 4 months living here but I loved that the city wasn't too big nor too small. Those four months in the Fall of 2004 were probably the craziest and most fun 4 months of my life. I had the opportunity to visit several other cities, but genuinely enjoyed Sevilla's charm of a small Spanish city but large enough to have a Starbucks. As sad as that sounds, it's true. There were days that your brain was so tired of translating everything or the daily annoyance of almost being hit by a crazy Spanish driver, that you needed a "happy place". Every barista spoke English and the coffee tasted the same as it did in the states. Don't get me wrong, the local coffee places were WAY better than Starbucks but sometimes you just needed the familiarity.

4. Chelsea's Lake House- I love love going to the lake! It's always so fun, relaxing, and there is nothing better than waking up in the mornings and having your cup of coffee out on the back patio looking out onto the lake. I'm glad Chelsea's family doesn't mind adopting me/having friends out there so often!

5. San Antonio, Tx-Ok, so not only do I love the city because I lived there for 6 years, but I love the feel of the city. Big enough to have everything you need (Niemans, Nordstroms, great restaurants, and most importantly The Spurs!) but small enough to not feel cold or overly concrete. Hopefully I'll get to live here again at some point in my life :) Go Spurs Go!

6. Houston, Tx-I guess this and SA seem kind of broad but I still wanted to include them in my list. I never really thought I'd say that Houston was one of my favorite places, but I have learned to appreciate the diversity of the city. You name it and it's here; people, food, entertainment, the ocean (ok, close by), cheaper gas, shopping, EVERYTHING. Maybe we need a Disneyland or Six Flags but I think other than that, it's here. I never thought I'd live here at all, and used to say I'd move to Dallas over Houston, but when the decision came down to where I was going to transfer the opportunities seemed better down here (for what I'd like to do w/my career. I'm not dissing Dallas by any means). I have enjoyed the past year here and still have so so many places to explore!

7. Panchitos- Yum! Yum! This is my favorite breakfast taco place in SA. Nothing better than going to the Panchitos off West and having a Migas plate or B-fast Taco's from there. Good memories at this place too :)

8. Anywhere my family-Cheesy...I know-But true. Anytime my family is together we have such a blast! Time together typically includes food, laughing, more food, craving what-a-burger, telling people to "wash-u-step", mo-fo's, asking people if they know Fortino, or if they can turtle page Maribel, answering the phone with "bueno" or "porque no han hablado". We seem to tell the same stories every time we are together but they just seem to get funnier every year!

These were just a few of mine, but I know there are so many more!