2017 Peachtree Road Race Recap

Yesterday, I completed my fourth Atlanta Journal Constitution Peachtree Road Race. It's the largest 10k in the U.S. with 60,000 participants. This is one of the most exciting, cheerful, and ORGANIZED races I've done to date. It's usually the only race I do in the summer. Something about it just keeps me coming back.

I became involved with this race as a teenage volunteer just trying to clock hours. I think I volunteered about 3 or 4 times. This was before the big Macy's parade downtown was cancelled (I used to volunteer for them too). When I volunteered, I had no idea what distance these folks were running and I didn't know what a 10k was. All I knew was I got great perks for standing out at Pharr Rd making sure cars knew Peachtree St. was closed and cheering on the runners and walkers. It was exciting just volunteering.

Pictures from 2016 with my father.
He's standing in front of the hospital on "cardiac hill" that he had his surgery at.

Check out 2014's recap. Fast forward to 2016's race... I didn't blog about it, but last year my dad and I ran/walked it together. In January 2016, he had triple bypass surgery. A fairly healthy man had to have unexpected heart surgery. Of course, that was hard. Once everything was okay and therapy was over, he told me he was down to do "the Peachtree" with me. I wish I would've blogged about it, but there's so many emotions from that day, it would have to be a separate post.

Fast forward to 2017... Here's a few pictures from the expo. I was in and out this year. I wasn't trying to pay $15 to park AND I didn't want to be near the temptation for too long, lol. Last year I signed up for a half marathon in Orlando and chickened out of doing it because I would've had to travel solo. *eye roll* I should've done it, but anyway...

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My husband decided to join us again for his second PRR, so it was me, him and my dad. We were all in different corrals and decided to just start the races on our own and meet up afterwards.

We arrived on MARTA just in time, literally 5 minutes before Corral G was to start (a bump up from my past corral's J and H). I didn't get any start pictures except for the flag and what I snapped on Snapchat.

Because I didn't properly train for this race, I intended to do walk/run intervals using my Couch to 10k app on Week 7. Lol at myself, because I should've known I was going to scrap that idea. As soon as they said go and I remembered that my "plan" would be thrown off a bit by the initial crowd and the fact that EVERYBODY starts out running, so it's not like I could really run my own pace. You're running the pace of the crowd until it thins out. The first 3 miles are always my fastest because it's downhill. It's mile 4 and 5 that take me out. *insert eye roll*.

So basically, I ran the first 3 miles, mostly walked miles 4 and 5, then started back running after reaching 5. I knew I hadn't been able to train very hard this time so I was okay with stopping to walk. In the past I would've been disappointed in myself for seemingly giving up. My splits definitely accurately reflect my performance. It was HOT and it was HUMID for sure too so it was difficult for ME to regain momentum.

During my walk break as I saw my pacer, who didn't know she was my pacer 😃 pass me by and disappear into the crowd, I was thinking "WHY do I keep signing up for this race!" and "I could be on the beach or at the Essence Festival!" Sigh. This was my slowest time completing this race solo. My dad shaved off 4 minutes off his time! It's all good. I still love running and I still love/hate running this race. He says he doesn't know about doing it next year, but I'll work on that. 😊

On to the next... the Atlanta 20k Relay :-)

WASN'T FEELING IT

Breakfast: vanilla protein shake (whey) with water

Today, well the past couple of days I just haven't felt like working out. I don't know. One week or one day can go well and then the next day I can have no motivation at all. I think I need to start back taking vitamins, seriously. Somehow, someway, I dragged myself downstairs to my garage (#firstworldproblems) and ran a mile and used the dumbbells for bicep curls and shoulder presses (two sets of 10). My eating was okay today, except for the Chips Ahoy. I'll live. I'll probably find motivation for a good run since I'm going to another city tomorrow. My blog post will probably be more interesting as well. :-)

 

 

COUNTRY LIFE | ZOO ADVENTURES | RESET BUTTON

6.15-6.18/2017

This past weekend we went to visit family in Northern Mississippi. It was the trip to my husband's hometown we needed. We hadn't visited since Christmas. Well, we tried to visit before Mother's Day, but I was the driver and um... we might've had a little accident that would be the root of many dollars being spent on my little Jeep that we're still paying for. All because I ran over a large piece of tire from an 18 wheeler. *eye roll*

Anyway, my son loves being in the country. He got to see the horse his dad grew up with and just run around and be free on the property. He blends in quite well, lol. I'm from a different kind of country. 

In the 11 years I've been going to visit, I've always skipped my workouts. I made the excuse of not wanting to drive a country mile to go workout and I certainly don't want to run down the road his parents home is on. I'm not trying to be chased by who knows what. I had the bright idea (what took me so long, I have no idea), to take me to the nearby HBCU (historically Black college & university) so I could run around campus or on their track. I'm attempting to keep some type of training schedule for this upcoming 10k. I ended up run/walking 4 miles around the track. I ran the straight parts and walked the curved. Loop after loop after loop and 4 miles were finally complete.

Although I exercised 1 out of the 3 full days we were there, I didn't eat well AT. ALL. On the drive there and back I ate McDonald's (which I never really even eat at home).  For breakfast my MIL cooked biscuits, pork bacon, pork sausage, and eggs all three mornings. Friday night we joined other family who were also in town at the Cheesecake Factory in Memphis. I couldn't go to the Cheesecake Factory and not get a slice of cheesecake. Poor me. I ordered the Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake or something like that. It was 1500 calories or so alone! My entrée was the turkey burger and sweet potato fries. So yeah, that was an over 3000 calorie meal. Saturday we had Corky's BBQ and the family hosted a fish fry. It's all good, I didn't beat myself up. I had a good time.

While we were there, we got a chance to visit the Memphis Zoo. I LOVED this zoo! I mean I only have one other zoo to compare it to, Atlanta Zoo, but it really put "ours" to shame. I'm sorry. I hardly say something in another city is better than my own, but yeah. Visiting this zoo made me want to see others. Being me, I couldn't help but feel kind of bad about enjoying animals in captivity, but I found out all of the animals there were endangered species, so that made me feel little better, lol. I felt like the zoo was saving them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an up close and personal nature girl, but I do think about these types of issues. I counted this zoo trip as an active rest day. We walked a lot.

6.19.2017

This morning (Monday) my stomach felt like it was paying the price for all of the garbage I ate. Per usual when I eat too much crap. It's like my body is trying to reject it because I've been eating a certain way (mostly clean) for so long. I knew it was time to hit the Reset button, for sure.

I didn't have much of an appetite today. I grazed on some sweet potato mash I ordered at O'Charley's. We went there to celebrate Father's Day when we got back in town. I also ate the rest of my breaded chicken and broccoli. That was my breakfast and lunch.

I wasn't feeling motivated to work out yet. My NTC app had today scheduled as a rest day, but I knew I needed to do SOMETHING. I looked at one of my old before and after pictures from last December when I successfully started and finished my journey to lose weight I'd put on in grad school. I put the same shirt on and didn't see what I liked. Oh yeah, that worked. I was downstairs on my treadmill in a flash!

I decided to just start off by walking on an incline to see if that would make me feel like running while I watched an Instagram live video from a lady I follow, Lakeitha Duncan. After about a mile, I switched to run/walk intervals for 2 miles, and finished by running the last mile. It's crazy how when I got to 3 miles, I was finally in the mood to run and felt my speed coming back to me. I had a good pace for that last mile. I have to play so many mind games with myself when I'm on the treadmill...crazy.

Dinner was a simple salad with cucumber from my in laws garden and a tomato from my first patio garden with balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I'm feeling much better at the end of the night.

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FAITH & FITNESS

I woke up with Psalm 23:1 on my heart. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing". I have everything to complain about this week, but I will not. Besides, what good will it do? I have everything I need and a lot of what I want..."I [shall] lack nothing."

As an attempt to keep the spirit of optimism going throughout the day, I decided do one of my favorite things I like to do to clear my head (besides cleaning & writing) and that was work out. Since the school year has ended and my son is home as well, my workouts have not occurred the same time of day no matter how hard I try. That can sometimes mean no workout at all. I decided after I fed him, I'd immediately workout afterwards (usually I start our home school lessons first), so I wouldn't have an excuse for becoming busy and then eventually skip it.

In the picture is a whole wheat waffle (fit & active brand from Aldi's), an egg with spinach, and two pieces of turkey bacon. I was going to skip the waffle because I'm supposed to be detoxing this week, but I was like "what the hey!". I'm counting macros/calories for a few weeks anyway, so as long as I don't go over my goal, I think I'll be good.

Now, for this workout. This was my first workout after a 5 day hiatus (I blame my cycle). I'm  training for a 10k, but just like clock work, I've grown bored with training for a distance over a 5k solo. It sucks. All of my long distance races I ran before I had my son, I was able to train with my running group or a partner. I swear that's the only way I was able to be so consistent with longer distances. Bottom line, I've grown bored with training again because it's started to seem more like a chore than be fun, relaxing, and accomplishing like running used to be for me. On top of that, I don't get outside very much and I haven't been motivated to run with my 40lb son in the jogger.

In efforts to just be active and be in SOME sort of shape for this race, I'm just going to do what I can. As I type that, I think about the two back to back family trips coming up. I've been switching between one of my Jillian Michael's DVD's and following a Nike+ Training Club workout. Today I did NTC Pace Breaker.

Today's workout was strength-based using body weight only (no gym equipment). It was challenging and I definitely feel the burn already. I burned almost 200 calories in 35 minutes.

I had to dust off my trusty rusty Nike+ GPS watch. I don't use it to run anymore. I track my runs with my Garmin. I use it to track calories burned when I sync it to my chest strap. The only reason I am still using this is because I haven't figured out which watch I really want to purchase. I want to track calories during workouts and my run, but that's for another post. Which do you use?

As mentioned above, I am supposedly detoxing. My lunch was this apple banana smoothie. I got the original recipe from Pinterest. This one consisted of 1 small apple, half of a banana, 1 serving of vanilla protein powder, a handful of spinach, 1 cup of water, and a few ice cubes. 

The rest of the day was blah...it's life. My dinner was on point and my snacks..... uh, yeah...I'm good on calorie count, but macros didn't go so well today. Tomorrow is another day. :-)

Thanks for reading! Comment below with your blog link. I'm trying to get back into reading fitness and health blogs instead of just the usual reading of Instagram posts.

Update!

It's been two years since I've blogged! Oh my! Well, the past year and some months, I've been in graduate school. I haven't quit running, I've just obviously had to redirect my attention to other things so blogging took a back seat. Waaaay in the back.

I've somehow been able to run a few 5k's and the annual 10k (Peachtree Road Race) that I do. But other than that, I've been running to either lose weight, maintain my weight, or as a stress reliever. My highest mileage was last fall. I went out on a solo run around Stone Mountain Park and talked myself into running 10 miles. It was my first double digit run since having my son (who's 3 now). I was extremely proud of myself.

Fast forward to today, March 2017. Today I completed Week 5, Day 2 of couch 10k. I completed exactly 4 miles. I'm not necessarily training to run a 10k right now. I found it helpful to use the couch to 10k program as a motivator to workout in the evenings. I don't have to stress about running the entire time. The intervals help me lose fat and burn calories faster. Lastly, I always like a structured program. I've been trying to lose the 15 lbs I gained since starting graduate school (which I have), and I needed something that would help me stay on track.

As far as my weight, I'm back to pre-graduate school weight, which is the same as pre-baby weight. Which is the same weight I was at when I first lost 50lbs. So I'm good. :-) I'm pretty much doing the same things...tracking macros, eating clean, exercising.  A post with pictures will be next.

Thanks for reading :-)