New initiatives

Good evening friends!

Happy Hump Day! How’s the week treating you so far? I am still a little off from working the overnight and now having a couple days off so I barely know what day it is and what I should be doing. I woke up today, though, with one goal in mind: GET TO THE GYM! I missed a week of my favorite class, Group Power, and I was dying to get back at it! I also have a new incentive to get my workouts in:

That’s right, a 10K TRAINING PLAN! I can’t believe it either, I’ve said this before but I’ve never thought of myself as a distance runner. In highschool I was known for my speed, a sprinter by trade, I thrived off of short distance running on the bases and on the track and field. I LOVED the 50 yard dash and 100 and 200 but HATED  the three hundred or any of our LSD (long slow distance) training days. I would go running in the summers but mostly for the goal of training for field hockey. Later in my college career I started running a bit but it was sporadic and not with any plan or purpose. My senior year, I became fitness obsessed and found myself addicted to the treadmill, running sprint intervals (aka HIIT). It did the job of getting me fit but it was all I did so I wasn’t very well-rounded in terms of my fitness or endurance. Fast forward to fall of 2009, I signed up for my very first 5k, a Turkey Trot! Jackie and her sister have a tradition of running the pre-feast race and asked me to sign up. I kept telling people “I’m actually running a 5k!” mostly because I couldn’t believe it myself (I’m not a distance runner, remember)! The race was a trail run which was such a blast but definitely different than anything I’ve ever done. I started off the race with Jackie, her sister, and her sisters friend Nick. I was so proud of myself for running every bit of the course, with Nick by my side.

The following spring I signed up for another 5k, again with Jackie. In the fall I signed up for one by myself and then one with Eric. I re-ran the Turkey Trot that fall too, with a less than stellar performance; I tripped not once, but twice, one of the times landing on a large root and bruising my bum pretty bad. I was a little bit over running at that point and with the crazy winter we just had I didn’t venture out for runs very often.

This winter, however, I went through one of the hardest experiences I’ve known. My first and biggest relationship ended; I was heart broken and lost. Suddenly all I wanted was for the snow to melt (and the pain, too) and to be able to get outside and just pound it out on the pavement. It took until late Feburary to happen but once I got out I promised to never take running for granted again, running is a privilege after all!

My last race was the Warrior Dash

Definitely a tough, crazy, fun race that reminded why I love running, racing, and most importantly doing things that I never thought I could. That brings me to this 10k. I am signing up for the Tuft’s 10k for Women in Boston this October. Last year I told myself I would run that race in a year, here we are a year later and I am going to make it happen. I’ve been so inspired lately by my favorite blogger runners/athletes like Tina, Ali, and Caitlin and now I’m ready to be my own success story!

Another initiative that I’m starting today is to get back to my clean eating ways. A week of eating the wisdom-teeth removal diet has re-ignited my clean eating fire. It also helps that my best friend, Jenna, got me a subscription to Clean Eating magazine for my birthday 🙂 So tonights dinner was a big ‘ol veggie stir fry with shrimp:

Garden zucchini and spinach plus red pepper, carrots, water chestnuts, and a portobello mushroom. I also ate a sweet potato along side it to fuel tomorrow mornings run.

YUM! Topped with some Bragg’s 🙂 Bring on the veggies and milage!

Tell me, what type of exercise or wellness activity inspires you? Is it more active or more reflective?

Have a great night everyone!

lots of love,

Em