Marathon Monday - 2nd Edition

So I am officially done with month one of marathon training and so far, so good.

No injuries, no heat stroke in the Georgia summer sun and I am still enjoying my training.

I don't know what it is about this round of marathon training, but it feels so different from the training I did last fall.

I am just enjoying it more I guess and I am doing better. I am only running four days a week this time (I did five days a week last time) and I haven't missed a day yet whereas last time, I made up a lot of excuses for missing days and got really behind on my schedule making for a terrible marathon experience.

In some related news....I finally saw a number on the scale that I haven't seen in a few years which was pretty darn exciting. I have been below this number for four days straight now and I am hoping that by the weekend I might be down even another pound. Right now, I am under the weight I was when I graduated college and when I lose another eight pounds, I will be at the weight I was when I graduated high school/when I was a fitness instructor in college.

Some photos of me from sophomore & junior year in college. That right there is the physique I am trying to get back.

I think that the vegan diet, eating clean and eating as cheaply as possible (lots of beans, grains, greens, fruits & no wine, chocolate or extra treats) have really helped me lose a few pounds this past month.

I do lose weight veryyyyyyyyy slowly (go away saddlebags!)....but here's hoping that by eating better and moving more, things will come together in a few months.

(Sidenote: we just had an impromptu dance party to Ice Cube in my house thanks to the Sublime pandora station).

I was talking to my mom last week about running and she mentioned that I must get terribly bored when I go for my 2-3 hour runs.

I do sometimes, but I am an avid podcast listener, so I thought that I would share some of my favorite podcasts (which you can download for free from the Itunes store) in case you needed some good listening material while you exercise, do some household chores or work from home making jewelry :)

/1\
RISK

 

This is hands down my favorite podcast in the world. The best way to describe it is a combination of story-telling, spoken word & stand up. The stories are real, sometimes heart breaking, other times a bit raunchy, usually funny and are well told. Episodes either have one long story (40 minutes) or 3-5 shorter stories (10-20 minutes per story) and the story tellers range from ordinary people who have a crazy story to share and then there are comedians like Sarah Silverman or Lisa Lampanelli or Michael Ian Black.

This past week I listened to a story that actually had me crying while I was running along and other weeks I have been laughing my head off like a crazy person while running because the story is so funny and I can't contain my excitement. 

Check out RISK in the Itunes store or on their website and just look for a title that interests you. I started listening to this podcast when it first started four years ago and have listened to every episode. You will not be disappointed. 

(Any of the stories with Elena Baker are pure gold).

/2\

 Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me

 

 If you listen to NPR, you are completely aware of this awesome weekly current events game show, but if not...listen now. 

Each week you have a celebrity panel (hats off to my personal favorites of Paula Poundstone & Alonzo Bodden) and special celebrity guests (last week was Jim Gaffigan, but others include Neil DeGasse Tyson, Martha Stewart & Ed Helms) that answer silly quizzes based on random weekly news. 

It's pretty funny and definitely makes the time go by quick because you can get lost in thought while trying to answer all the questions correctly in the lightening round. 

You can almost forget that you are running 15 miles.

This past year for our wedding anniversary, we actually went and saw the taping of one of their shows when they did a live show at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA. It was so fun to see the behind-the-scenes action of this podcast. 

Us last September on our 3rd year wedding anniversary at the Fox Theater

/3\

Stuff You Missed In History Class

 How Stuff Works is an awesome website owned and operated by the Discovery Channel. On it are thousands of well researched and thought out articles on completely random questions/topics. 

Some examples I saw today are...

* Is the Dead Sea really dead?

* 10 Silly Inventions That Became Wildly Famous

* Why Do Men Have Nipples?

How Stuff Works also produces over a dozen separate podcasts a week. I listen to three of them, but my personal favorite is 'Stuff You Missed In History Class.' 

You get to listen for 20-40 minutes on one subject matter and the ladies really break it down for you. It is super interesting and I have learned about things like 'Lizzie Borden and Her Axe,' 'The Disappearance of the Lindbergh Baby,' & 'Who Was The Real Dr. Frankenstein.'

This podcast really makes you stellar at the history questions on Trival Pursuit. 

I hope you found a new podcast or two to listen to, but if you are more of a music fan while sweating, here is my current playlist for when I run. 

Lots of upbeat, fast songs with catchy hooks.

Linking up with Ashley from 'The Domestic Wannabe!'



Have a great Monday everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Running A Marathon - Round Two

Well....it somehow happened again. 

I was on a walk with my husband about a month ago and mentioned that I had been toying around in my head the idea of running another marathon. 

The last one was only one of the worst/best experiences of my life, so I am a sadomastic I guess.

My husband is pretty passionate about running and before I knew it, I had a marathon training plan in my inbox (without even asking for one), courtesy of my handsome runner.

My first run was only three miles, but it was such an emotionally and physically exhausting run. I literally hadn't run...like at all....since the marathon in March. 

Running for the first time in three months in 100% humidity in the beginning of July doesn't add up to the best run of my life.

This was all the smile I could possibly muster.

But after running for three weeks now....it is getting a little bit easier. Just a little bit. 

I have trying to be more positive on my runs and not just focus on how much I dislike running or how tired I am, but on how I am able to physically do this and that I actually put on my shoes and got out of the house. 

I have had some really fun runs these past few weeks (a sentence I never thought I would write in my life).

Two weeks ago on my long run for the week, the sky opened up about two minutes after I left the house and a torrential downpour occurred for 15 minutes. I was running along this crazy busy road, had cars splashing water on me and was absolutely drenched. I could hardly see I had so much water streaming down my face. The rest of the run was spent puddle hopping around the island and slowly drying off. 

It was probably my most enjoyable and fun long run ever (seriously...who have I become?).

This last week on my long run, I had to go 11 miles and I left the house around 11:00am. That is a pretty late time to start running in Georgia in July, but I figured that I would run slow, drink plenty of water and not worry about my pace. 

And maybe....just maybe....I was thinking I could use the heat as an excuse to not run all 11 miles.

By the second mile, I was needing to walk every few minutes, I was pouring sweat and honestly started to become worried about heat stroke. 

After running/walking for the first 7 miles, a big storm started brewing and the temperature started dropping fast. It was such a weird sensation to start running when it was sunny and 90 out and feel the temperature suddenly drop about 15 degrees in 10 minutes. Definitely made the last three miles incredibly enjoyable and I finished up with a decent pace just before the rain started falling despite walking so much the first half. 

I am hoping that with this marathon training, I don't gain weight like last time. 

I may have been the first person in the history of the universe who has gained weight while training for a marathon. 

Since I was running so much, I rationalized to myself that I could eat whatever I want. 

Um....definitely not the case.

My legs got even bigger and I got a belly. 

(Sidenote: after the marathon in March, we went to our favorite burger joint and I gobbled up a cheeseburger with bacon, lots of fries and sweet tea, followed by a BLT with avocado on it at home. 

Home girl don't joke around when it comes to eating). 

Since readopting veganism in March and eating fairly clean, I am down about 10 lbs. I would obviously love to not gain weight while running so I am trying to learn how to balance fueling my body for running long distances while not over eating. 

Gosh darn it though, I just love to eat!!

Since starting running three weeks ago, I notice my legs have gotten tighter and I have lost 2-3 pounds, so here is hoping that I stay along this trajectory. 

Well...I guess that this officially means 'Marathon Monday's' are going to be a frequent occurance on my blog.

Anyone else want to run a marathon with me? 

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

I'm Hungry

So one of the things that happens when you run a race is that they have professional photographers all over the course taking your photo.

They have nice cameras which really show a lot of details. 

Too much details. 

We got an email from the race photographer on Monday evening with all the photos that we were in. There were a few dozen and we each went to our separate computer and looked at our individual photos.

Our photos were bad. Real bad. Mine were really really bad. So bad that I cried. 

We both came to the hard conclusion that we could stand to lose a few pounds. It really took the wind out of my sails. I mean 36 hours prior I had finished a marathon, but after seeing those photos, I got really bummed out. 

It also just so happened that Monday night when we received the race photos, we were in the middle of watching the documentary 'Forks Over Knives' on Netflix. 

In case you don't know, this movie highlights the importance of having a plant based diet (veganism) using scientific arguments on the health benefits that occur once you remove dairy and meat from your diet. I won't get into the details at all because I am not an expert but I definitely recommend that you watch the movie to learn more about it. 

It is powerful but not 'in your face.'

When I was in fourth grade I became a vegetarian and did so for about five years (minus the occasional bacon indulgence here and there. I had a weakness!). In tenth grade I started eating meat again. Once I hit college, I went vegetarian for about a year and then turned to veganism. I was a vegan for about a year, ate meat for a year, became vegan again for about two years, went vegetarian for two years, then ate meat for the last 1.5 years. 

To say that my relationship with animal products is off/on again is an understatement. 

After watching the movie 'Forks over Knives' with my husband though on Monday, we both came to the conclusion together that we needed to adopt more of a plant based diet. We need to get healthy, lose weight and get control of our future.

We are doing it together and I am excited about that.

We are slowly easing into this. We have some dairy in the house we need to eat still and some meat in the freezer we need to cook. We are planning on doing one meal a week with the meat until we use it all up and basically limit our dairy intake by a lot as we slowly get rid of our cheese/eggs/butter. I am most likely going to go full-on vegan once we use up all the dairy and meat, while my husband will be fairly plant based, but still enjoy the occasional burger :)

We will see how this goes and we are really excited about doing this together (probably me more than him though. He just got a new grill for his birthday two weeks ago and grilling vegetables on it isn't quite the same as grilling meat).

So expect some vegan recipes to come your way during the next few months. I actually did a guest post on Kate's blog last week, Scathingly Brillant, about one of my favorite vegan dishes to make (total coinecende). 

Check out Scathingly Brillant (here) to see how I make a yummy Pakistani Dahl.

All in all, I definitely want to eat some bacon right now.

Only a 1 lb gain!

When it is Thanksgiving weekend and you love gorging as much as I do, I will take any victory. 

This morning when I hopped on the scale after binging all weekend on pie, butter, gravy, butter and high fructose corn syrup, I was delighted to find out that the scale was only showing a 1 lb gain. Hooray!

If I stick to my exercise plan again this week, I should be able to negate my gain and maybe....just maybe drop another lb. 

Maybe.

Today I did all the things that I am supposed to do to be healthy. 

* Woke up and drank some water.

* Had a cup of warm water with lemon. 

* Had oatmeal for breakfast instead of pie (eating pie for breakfast is a wonderful thing and only allowed during the holidays).

* I had some vegetables not covered in cream of mushroom soup or gravy. I even stuck to my allocated calories for the day (as of 8:00pm EST).

* Went to the gym with a million other people to burn off some stuffing calories.

This is a photo of me from Thanksgiving six years ago with the best damn pecan pie I have ever tasted.

Last week I did pretty good exercise wise (it's already been established that I ate a whole bunch of nonsense). I created a running and work-out plan that will hopefully get me to where I need to be to finish the Atlanta Marathon in March. 

For this week, I needed to weight lift five days and ran a total of 14 miles over four days (3/3/3/5 miles). I ended up running three days only because on Friday the day slipped away from me and it got too dark out before I realized I needed to run still.

What I did last week:

Monday - Legs

Tuesday - Arms/Abs plus a three mile run

Wednesday - Chest/Back plus a three mile run

Thursday - Legs

Friday - Shoulders/Abs

Saturday - Rest

Sunday - Five mile long run.

This week is pretty much the same, but with that missed day of running three miles thrown in as well as upping my long run to seven miles. Also, I am going to start counting calories again, so I can actually be sure to shed fat, not just gain muscle.

All in all, I am hoping to get enough of a deficit in my weight over the next few weeks so I can eat as much cake/cookies/frosting/butter as I want over the Christmas week.

111 days until the Atlanta Marathon! Here I come!

 

I may be crazy...

Earlier this month, I had the honor of watching my husband run the Savannah Rock N' Roll marathon. It was awe-inspiring, made me feel incredibly out of shape and lazy and I also got to cringe at some people's outfits (seriously...no one needs to wear a unitard, even if you do have a runner's body). 

My husband trained for this marathon since July. 

While attending law school. 

And being on law review. 

And mock trial. 

He was a bit busy the past few months, but he was so dedicated and worked so hard at being able to cross the finish line. There were quite a few times when he would get home from a full day of studying at 9pm, strap on his headlamp and go running for three hours. 

He is insane.

 

This is him before the race began. Doesn't he look happy?

This is around the 8 mile mark. 

Getting ready to cross the finish line...

And done. 

I can't even begin to describe how incredibly proud I am of him. Of his dedication, perseverance and willpower. I had several people ask me if I was going to run along with him and I told them that I only would if someone was chasing me. 

But...I have changed my mind. 

I think.

I am going to run a marathon. I am pretty sure. Like for real. I think. 

I am scared. 

 via

And then I hear quotes like that....and I think I am a giant wussy.

So I have decided to ....

via

And I hope that I will feel like this most of the time...

So Atlanta Marathon, March 17, 2013....here I come. 

I think.