Whole Living Imprint

A Few Things

This past weekend I learned a few things

1. Sleep is very important
2. I wear myself thin to the point I am very tired
3. The paleo diet is not for me
4. I love recovery smoothies after a workout
5. I am going to make sure I incorporate more Bikram into my weekly workout schedule
6. Gel-nails are so pretty
7. The HBO TV show, Girls, is hilarious
8. More blog posts are a most, maybe even a few vlogs
9. I am going to give GU gels a shot

Now to go more in depth on these items:

1. I have to get more sleep! Going to bed around midnight almost every night and then waking up at 5am is just not going to work anymore. I can do it, I can go on 5 hrs of sleep a night, but it will hit me and I know that. SO no mas! If I go to bed that late then no morning workout, I will move my workout to the evening hours and enjoy sleeping in a little while longer.
2. The past two weekends before this one were non stop go go go. First, it was the North Face Endurance Challenge (loved it) and then I was in Chicago for mini vacation (best time ever)! Even though I had a great time, I never recovered and I needed to recover more from both occasions. Because I did not properly recover, I wound up losing my voice, feeling feverish/weak, and getting an upset stomach on Friday and Saturday. I took the very good advice to take it easy Friday night and all day Saturday and just watched The Girls all day yesterday and slept. I am so happy I did, because I woke up this morning feeling almost 100%.
3. Ok so this is pretty silly, but I tried the paleo diet for about three days and it is not for me. A endurance athlete doing paleo? Crazy right? I had done the research, read a lot of blogs, etc etc… After following it for three days I found myself getting cramps in my feet at night and waking up super hungry. This could be one reason while I was more tired than usual this past week. Paleo may work for some endurance athletes, but not for me and that is A OK with me. I gave it a shot to test it out and got my results. 
4. I used to do recovery smoothies all the time and then stopped because I thought I was spending too much on protein powders. Well too too bad because it is hot as hell outside and nothing beats a good recovery smoothie after a workout!
5. I think what is written above is enough of an explanation.
6. On Friday I went to get a pedicure with a friend of mine and ended up getting gels! Love them and plan on getting gel nails from now on :)
7. So as I sat/slept around yesterday, I caught up on The Girls and only have the season finale left, yay! The Girls is such a raw and funny show that I think probably hits every aspect of my age group in today’s world. This is honestly kind of sad to know that my generation is that much more advanced than previous generations.
8. Time and time again, I say this, but this time it is happening. More blog posts to come!
9. This week and I am going to try eating a GU Gel before my morning workouts instead of a peanut butter & banana sandwich. The goal is two folds a) more sleep time because it does not take as long to digest a GU Gel b) a lighter stomach while working out

I am excited about all these things I realized over the weekend and I am looking forward to wrapping up The Girls, seeing how the GU Gels work out, and getting more sleep!

8 Weeks!

Happy Monday morning to everyone! 

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing Easter weekend and were able to spend a lot of time with either your family and/or friends. I went home on Friday to see my family and flew back last night. Yes, it was a very short trip, but I loved being home and getting to spend time with my parents and one of my best friends. While home I made sure to hit up some of my favorite restaurants (such as R. Thomas and the Sunflower Cafe), stores (Anthropologie), running trails, and new fitness experiences (Fly Wheel).

While I was home I even managed to trip again on another rock while trail running and now have another big scrap on the left side of my stomach. My mom wonders what she is going to do with her klutzy daughter. I just smiled and said “theres no crying in baseball”, when I saw her shake her head after she saw all the mud covering me.

I loved getting to run the trails while I was home. I felt so alive rushing up and over the rocks and through the woods. While on the trails, I was able to clear my mind and think about everything. At one point on top of the mountain I stopped, took a look around and smiled. It felt amazing being out there and I am so happy I got to run them.

Now that it is Monday morning, it is back to the work grind and now only 8 weeks till the North Face Endurance Challenge! I can not wait to see how my training continues to go from here on out. 

Backyard Burn Race Re-cap!

Happy Monday!

Sunday brought a lot of smiles and one in particular came from my experience running the EX2 Backyard Burn Trail race! 

The night before I enjoyed tilapia a la cilantro, sweet potato mash, side of collards/mushrooms/english peas, and sprouted grain bread! It was spectacular and throughout dinner I kept thinking how much I couldn’t wait till the next morning and to just get running! Before I went to sleep, I got a really got stretch in and watched a little bit of JUNO (great movie).  

The next morning I was woken up by my nephew hollering, guess he was just as excited about the race as I was! I have a wish, that since he has now gone to two races with me, that he will one day want to run too. Gotta start somewhere!

After I jumped out of bed, I made my way to the kitchen where I fixed a cup of jo, peanut butter and banana sandwich with my favorite sugar free syrup, and glass of coconut water. It was just all so scrumcious!

Flash forward through the drive to the race, the packet pick up, and stop right at the start of the race. All that was going through my mind was, “Shit I hope wearing my Vibrams was a good decision, I better walk away with a medal, and how I was going to beat the girl next to me no matter what”. Quick reminder this was just a race, but at the same time I didn’t come to play nice I came to run.

The course was very technical with lots of slippery rocks and steep rocky climbs. At one point I had to tell myself, “your legs are not screaming at you they are cheering you on so keep on pushing”. I used the water stations as my mile markers and knew once I passed the third one, grabbing a cup of water, that the race was almost over! Making my way through the last half mile along a muddy cliff, I prayed my ankles stayed strong and stable. The final hill stared me straight on and I charged ahead hearing my brother holding my nephew cheer me on. As I crossed the finish line, I was biting at the bit to rehydrate and get my massage : )

My brother came running up to me and told me I placed 5th in my age group of 29 and under. I was beeming ear to ear; so happy with my run, that I wore Vibrams, and with that moment in time! The only way to end this wonderful day was a celebratory lunch at Busboys and Poets, a nice long nap, sitting at Starbucks, a trip to see the new Tyler Perry film, a celebratory drink after the movie, cooking finger lickin’ chicken, and watching the last 30 min of Homeland season 1. Call me simple, but I don’t care because yesterday was awesome!