Michelle — Page 67

Weekly Wrap – All lacrosse all the time

May 22, 2016 by Michelle 20 Comments

It’s Sunday evening and I am t-i-r-e-d y’all. But it’s a good kind of tired – the kind that comes from a fun whirlwind weekend.

Before I get to the weekend activities, a quick re-cap of the week’s workouts (and, yes, the daily planking continues!):

Monday: Strength day.
Tuesday: 3.25 mile run.
Wednesday: Strength with Trainer Stacy.
Thursday: Migraine = no run.
Friday: Yoga. I had wanted to make up Thursday’s run, but my head wasn’t having it.
Saturday: My hubby J ran with me again – 4.25 miles done. I have to admit it makes me crazy that he takes the hills with such ease, but it pushes me to keep up.
Sunday: Yard and garden work.

So the big question of this week was how much lacrosse can you fit into 7 days? Well, we started with 3 games for my oldest son with his school’s team during the week. I really don’t know why the Athletic Director allowed 3 games in one week, but we were there to cheer him on.

That’s my kiddo in the black jersey

One could say that was plenty of lacrosse right there – especially when you add in that my youngest son had practice twice this week. But the big doings came this weekend, when we made the trip down to Providence to see my alma mater take on Navy in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Quarter Finals. Our tickets covered two games so we first got to see Maryland vs. Syracuse – a great match up, though we were rooting for Syracuse. Then it was on to Brown vs. Navy! We withstood some rowdy Navy fans and cheered our hearts out through a nail-bitter to see Brown move on to the semi-finals!

Source: Brown Lacrosse Instagram

You’d think we’d be all-lacrossed out by this point right? Nope. Both boys played for our town teams this morning (with J coaching), and then watched the other two quarter final games on ESPN this afternoon. Yeah…it’s a bit of an obsession in my house.

This week should be the usual mix of work, school, runs/workouts, and yes more lax…oh and I’ve got the Run to Remember 5-miler next weekend. I haven’t figure out what, if any, my goals are for this race…more on that later.

How was your week? Does your family have a sport obsession?

I’m linking up again with Holly & Tricia for the #WeeklyWrap — thanks to them for hosting!

Filed Under: Lacrosse, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap #17

May 16, 2016 by Michelle 16 Comments

It’s Monday which means it’s time to wrap-up another week!

Monday: Strength day.
Tuesday: 3.25 mile run.
Wednesday: Strength day.
Thursday: 3 mile run. (The group run with BGR didn’t come together but we’re going to try again this week)
Friday: Spent the day with a friend – lots of walking.
Saturday: J decided to join me for a run – 4.25 miles done. Followed by an afternoon of yard/garden work.
Sunday: Rest day.

Plus daily planking continued!

For the most part it was a pretty routine week around here. Mother Nature continued to show she has a sense of humor – after last week where I was prepared to build an ark, this week she flipped the heat switch! I was so not ready for the 30 degree jump in temps and there may have been some whining while running.

I did get a nice surprise of winning a pair of Zensah Well Rounded Shorts during Tuesday night’s #BibChat. Zensah is my go-to choice for compression gear so I’m very psyched and cannot wait for them to arrive in the mail! And, speaking of fun things in the mail, I came home Wednesday to find these books waiting for me.

As a little perk to the Rock’n’Blog team, we each got to pick a couple of books from a collection of great titles from VeloPress! I started reading Racing Weight last night – review to come soon!

Have you read either of these books? How was your week?

I’m linking up again with Holly and Tricia for the #WeeklyWrap.

Filed Under: #RocknBlog, Weekly Wrap

Weekly Wrap – Getting Stronger

May 9, 2016 by Michelle 20 Comments

Happy Monday!

I’m happy to say that last week felt like a turning point for me – dare I say it…I felt stronger…stronger during both my runs and my strength workouts. Still a ton of work to do but last week felt like real progress!

Monday 5/2: Strength work and PT exercises.
Tuesday 5/3: This was suppose to be a run day, but I had an awful night of sleep and could not get my face out of the pillow when my alarm went off. The pouring rain did not help…and this run did not happen.
Wednesday 5/4: Session with Trainer Stacey.
Thursday 5/5: Still raining (seriously I was considering building an ark this week!), but I was up and out early – 3.5 miles done. Deep tissue massage in the afternoon (always a win!)

Friday 5/6: Yoga.
Saturday 5/7: Another soggy run – 4 miles.
Sunday 5/8: A rare appearance of the sun, so I couldn’t resist starting Mother’s Day off with a 3 mile run to make up for Tuesday.

I also managed to get back on the daily plank bandwagon – thanks to Marcia’s #plankyplanky challenge on Facebook.

The sun is hopefully here to stay this week so I’m looking forward to no more soggy runs, and some cross-training…aka, yardwork, to add to the mix this week. And, I’m hoping to meet up with a crew from Black Girls Run for a group run on Thursday!

So how’d last week treat you? Join the fun group of bloggers for the Weekly Wrap and let us know. Tricia and Holly are great hosts and I swear this link-up gets bigger every week!

Filed Under: Weekly Wrap

Ultimate Coffee – May 2016

May 7, 2016 by Michelle 20 Comments

It’s the first Saturday of the month, and time for the Ultimate Coffee Date. As always, a big thanks to Coco, Lynda and Deborah for hosting! When you’re done here, be sure to check out the link-up and see what the other ladies are dishing about.

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that I’m back on my kick to catch up with a friend every week. I started this goal back in March, and managed to finagle lunch/dinner/coffee or something with a friend each week. While I’d hope to keep the streak going in April, I missed out on a couple of weeks. But I’ve already kicked off May with a long-overdue dinner this week with an old college friend, and am determined to make time for more connecting this month.

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that speaking of connecting, I’ll be stepping out of my comfort zone this month to participate in some group runs. I’ve never run with a group for fear of being “the slow one,” but I would really like to connect with more local runners so I’m going to give it shot.

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that I’m itching to put together a new playlist, and ask you to share your current favorite running tunes.

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that it blows my mind that in just 4 short weeks there will be a high schooler in my house! Really how did that happen?! So there are final projects to wrap up, class trips to enjoy and courses to pick. My son mentioned switching from Spanish to Chinese, and I’m thinking I may need to invest in Rosetta Stone just to keep up 😉

Is this in my future?

If we were having coffee together, I’d tell you that my Mother’s Day plan includes sleeping in (if I get to anything post 8 o’clock, it’s a win!), cheering my boys on in Lacrosse (of course!), and, hopefully, a little running. J and the boys will also be cooking one of my fave dishes, Greek-style Shrimp, for dinner.

So what would you tell me over coffee? Happy Mother’s Day to all my fellow mother runners!

Filed Under: Ultimate coffee date

April Wrap and May Goals

May 1, 2016 by Michelle 32 Comments

And just like that another month comes to a close! As always, I’m joining Holly & Tricia for the Weekly Wrap. When you’re done here, please visit these two great ladies and all of the other bloggers linking up.

For April I set 5 goals …so how did it go?

Run all the miles — Hmm a bit of a mixed bag. As I mentioned in my Runfessions, my body is just not tolerating the mileage build up yet, so while runs were not missed, they were sometimes shorter than planned.

Lose the negative thoughts — While there is still work to do here, I think I did much better with this over the past month.

Return to morning runs — YES!

Step-up the strength work — Another big YES!

Lose 3 pounds — Um no…hence the commencing of the food journaling.

All-in-all I would say it was a fairly solid month.

With my first race of 2016 coming in a few weeks, my goals remain pretty much the same. I want to build on the progress I made in April and be able to answer a big YES to all of these by the end of this month. I’m also going to use May to explore training options for my fall races, because the way these days are ticking by, summer training will be here before you know it. Would you believe it’s just 20 weeks until #RnRPhilly in September?…yes, I counted…don’t judge.

So tell me how did April treat you? Any big goals for May?

Filed Under: month in review, Weekly Wrap

April Runfessions

April 29, 2016 by Michelle 26 Comments

Welcome to the April edition of Runfessions – a chance to share your confessions about your runs, swims or gym time. Link up with Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice and join us!

Runfession #1 — I continue to enjoy my strength workouts and time in the gym far more than my runs and that’s fine with me. I know that my body needs to get stronger before I start really piling on the miles.

Runfession #2 — Given that my weekly mileage is still on the lower side, I’m seriously leaning towards dropping down from the half to the 5-miler for the upcoming Run to Remember. I know what being in half marathon shape feels like and I’m not there yet…but I will be.

Runfession #3 — While I know the strength training is going to pay off, I’m still feeling very restless about my running – like it’s time to do something different…maybe try a new way to train. Do you ever feel that way? I just listened to the Another Mother Runner podcast on heart rate training and I’ll admit I’m a little intrigued.

Runfession #4 — Actually I guess this one is more of a gym-fession…I dealing with a eavesdropper at the gym. There is this woman who always happens to be in the same section of the gym as my trainer and I and I swear she spends the whole time listening in on the instructions from the trainer instead of working out. I watched her do it the other day to someone else who was also working out with a trainer. I feel like if she’s going to listen in that closely, perhaps she ought to chip in for the cost of the session, don’t ya think?

Runfession #5 — And speaking of gym crazies, last month I mentioned the guy who’s been coming to the gym and working out in jeans. I hadn’t seen him in weeks, but and behold he showed up the other day…and yes in jeans again. I confess it took all of my self control to not ask him about the jeans!

OK so now it’s your turn….what do you run-fess? Ever deal with a gym eavesdropper?

I’m also joining Courtney, Mar and Cynthia for the Friday Five

Filed Under: Friday Five, Runfessions

Weekly Wrap – RtR week 7

April 25, 2016 by Michelle 14 Comments

‘Twas spring break week here for my youngest son – so it was a crazy week of juggling work, playdates, a full lax schedule (honestly…when is it not full?!?) and, of course, some workouts. So here’s how the workouts went…

Monday 4/18: Boston Marathon Volunteering! Almost 7 hrs on my feet plus 3 miles run to get to the team meeting place.
Tuesday 4/19: My legs were toast – rest day!
Wednesday 4/20: An hour and half session with Trainer Stacey – glutes, abs, hips – oh my!
Thursday 4/21: Return of the irritable stomach along with a headache – pushed the run to Friday.
Friday 4/22: Chasing the sun again with 3 miles.
Saturday 4/23: 4.25 miles in light rain – all good.
Sunday 4/24: Planks and PT exercises.

A decent week despite the scheduling madness. One of my goals for April was to make some real progress on my weight loss goal – well after watching the same pound or two come and go on the scale, I decided to start keeping a food journal this week. Hopefully it will shed some light on why I’m not shedding pounds…sorry I couldn’t resist 😉

I’m looking forward to more of a regular routine this week – though Mother Nature is threatening to wreak havoc with my planned runs with…believe it or not…snow and sleet!

Anyone else facing the prospect of crazy weather? Have you ever kept a food journal?

I’m joining Holly and Tricia for their #WeeklyWrap – This link-up gets bigger every week and is full of fun bloggers. Be sure to stop by and join in!

Filed Under: training, Weekly Wrap

Thursday Thoughts – Volunteering at Boston 2016

April 21, 2016 by Michelle 16 Comments

Let me just say that volunteering at the Boston Marathon once again did not disappoint!

On Monday, I was lucky enough to be one of the 11,000 volunteers working the Marathon. This was my third year volunteering, and after not getting an assignment last year, I was psyched to be assigned to the finish area (previous assignments were in the Athlete’s Village in Hopkinton).

My team manned the huge water station after the finish line. We got to cheer the wheelchair finishers and the elites before it was time to man our stations to greet the masses! I had illusions of being able to take lots of pictures, but the reality was once those runners started coming through it was a crazy flurry of activity.

The energy was amazing! I was blown away by how good some people looked as they came in, while others seriously worried me that I was going to have to put my CPR training to use – no joke. My team hooted and hollered and congratulated as many runners as possible. I joined some finishers in primal screams of celebration and received hugs from perfect strangers. And, I really appreciated the number of people who thanked us for volunteering. While I missed some friends in the chaos, I was lucky enough to catch up with Michele from NYC Running Mama and Sarah, aka SBS from Another Mother Runner!

My teammates were a fun bunch – some runners, but interestingly some were not – they all just loved this event and wanted to be apart of it. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say it was a great day, and I can’t wait to volunteer again next year!

Source: Boston.com

Have you ever been a race volunteer?

Joining Amanda for Thinking Out Loud Thursdays

Filed Under: Boston Marathon, Thursday Thoughts, volunteering

Weekly Wrap – RtR Week 6

April 17, 2016 by Michelle 16 Comments

I swear I blinked and the week was over! Overall I was pretty pleased with how this week went.

Monday 4/11: Rest Day.
Tuesday 4/12: Strength work and PT exercises.
Wednesday 4/13: 3 mile run.
Thursday 4/14: An hour session with Trainer Stacey.
Friday 4/15: Legs were very sore from Thursday’s workout so just did some core work and PT exercises.
Saturday 4/16: I had planned to run 6, but I woke up with a very irritable stomach which did not settle as I started running, so I settled for 4.
Sunday 4/17: 3.5 mile run.

While I would have liked a little more mileage, Trainer Stacey continues to remind me that progress may be a little slower as I work on correcting my imbalances….but it’s still progress. I’m really enjoying training with Stacey – it’s super challenging and I love how positive she is!

The goal each week is to make it better than the last! I’ll also be drawing some additional motivation this week from my volunteer gig at the marathon tomorrow – hard to not be motivated, right? Wishing everyone running Boston the best of luck!

I’m joining Holly and Tricia for their #WeeklyWrap. There are so many fun bloggers linking up, be sure to stop by!

What are you looking forward to this week?

Filed Under: training, Weekly Wrap

Five Benefits of Morning Running

April 15, 2016 by Michelle 23 Comments

Happy Friday!

If you’ve been hanging out around here then you know that one of my goals this month is to get back to early morning runs. I’m happy to say that so far I’m crushing this goal, and while I admit some mornings are harder than others, I’m loving these runs. Today’s Friday Five theme is “favorites” so I thought I’d share some benefits of why it’s worth it to get up and out early.

No schedule conflicts — This one is huge for me! I love being able to “check the box” off my to do list and not stress about how I’m going to fit in a run later in the day.

More time in your day — Taking care of my workout early also leaves me feeling much more in control of my day, and with more time to get things done.

Better breathing — Getting out and done before too many commuters hit the road means breathing in less car exhaust.

Metabolism jump start — With an early morning workout you kick your metabolism into high gear, burning more calories at a faster rate throughout the day.

Better sleep — Inevitably getting up earlier means going to bed earlier. As a result, I’m finding that I’ve been sleeping better and overall feel more rested.

**Bonus** — A chance to catch a beautiful sunrise!