Restart

It’s been a week since the Publix Georgia Half Marathon and I’ve spent the week not running.  I was supposed to run… Coach Caleb made me a training plan for this week… but I didn’t run.  I have a few excuses.

1.  School was crazy.  And it was.  I spent several of the evenings and most of this weekend reading and writing for school.  However, I know near the end of the week I could’ve made time to at least get a few miles in, but I didn’t.

2.  I was tired.  And I was.  For some reason I haven’t been able to catch up on sleep.  My body has been tired, too.  Going to work and sitting still at my desk have made my legs feel so tired and tight.  By the time I got home from work, I just felt too beat to run.  I could’ve pushed through, but I didn’t.

3.  I felt discouraged.  Getting GI issues and missing my goal of a sub 2:40 race discouraged me.  Realizing I probably screwed it up myself by not eating right and fueling properly has made me mad at myself.  Seeing my race photos and seeing I have a long way to go until I have a runner’s body was even more frustrating.  That’s a pretty honest statement to put out on the internet.  And it’s the truth.  That’s the bottom line.  Ultimately, that’s why I didn’t run.

It was just one of those weeks that the mental blocks won.  But I think they were a wake up call, too.  I’ve run for about 4 month’s using Caleb’s plan and I’ve run 20+ mile weeks for some time now.  What hasn’t changed is my eating.  I could sugar coat this, but my eating isn’t healthy and I’m not fueling my body with good stuff.

I know this post sounds like me beating myself up and it is a little bit, but it’s more about me getting in gear and waking up.  So, this week was a break to regroup and realize I’m missing a huge part of training, nutrition.  I’ve got to fuel my body properly and running 20+ mile weeks will benefit losing weight and having a better body.  Then I will start having better races.  But I can keep running as much as I want, but if I keep eating crap, I won’t get any better.  It’s time to get serious.

If you have any nutritional suggestions for running and losing weight, send them my way!

2012: Best year of my 20s.

I’m superstitious.  I worry about karma from time to time.  I worry talking up 2012 might make 2013 not as great, but I can’t help it.  2012 was a fantastic year for Sarah Bland.

Let me list a few great things that happened this year:

-I moved to Atlanta and got out of SC.  I love ATL.
-I got my own apartment.  First time living on my own completely (not counting college) and I love it.
-Bought my first car on my own.
-Got a job that pays pretty good with a pretty great boss.
-Was accepted into graduate school for an MBA/MPH program.
-Finished my first four classes of grad school with a 4.0 GPA.
-While I didn’t run a ton, I did become healthier and lose weight
-Found Stone Mountain.  I didn’t “find” that place, but 2012 was my first time experiencing it.  One of the most beautiful places to experience nature.
-My mom got a job (and now a promotion) at a hospital 1 mile away from my work.  She also only lives 10 minutes away.
-Got out of SC
-Got out of church (and wasn’t afraid to admit it)
-Found myself a little more

This will publish to my twitter feed and I expect no one to read it.  It’s just for me to look back on one day.  I am happier than I have been in so long.  I finally decided to stop waiting for good things to happen to me and let go of things that were holding me back and have ambition to find a happier life.  Bad things still happen, but the good outweighed the bad this year.  I hope to continue the trend in 2013.

I don’t have any resolutions, I usually forget them by February anyway.  I only hope to run a lot more, keep getting good grades, and continue to be happy.  Ultimately, I want to keep being ambitious; I want to keep pushing myself.

I have to go.  Ned is laying on an electric blanket and is overheating himself.  He is panting way too much and I’m cutting the blanket privileges.  Happy New Year!

2012 Race Schedule

I’m no awesome blogger like my friends Victoria or Dan, but from time to time, I like to pop on here to blog about running or health.

Since I last blogged in May, I’ve been running around Stone Mountain and even ran the Bad Marsh 50k in late June and completed 13.6 miles.  I did that with minimal training, even!  It was my first ultra trail race and it was a blast.  What made it even better was getting a chance to hang out with my Savannah friends and getting to meet even more running folks.

In the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what’s next for the remainder of 2012.  Atlanta is full of races that I want to get involved with but I have some races back in Savannah I want to be a part of as well.  I’ve taken some time to think about it and I think here is the schedule that I’m going to stick with.

October 14: The North Face Endurance Challenge 5k — I have been running with Ian, new to running, and he mentioned he would be interested in this type of race.  I think it’ll be a good first race for him and I’m excited to run it with him.

November 17: Mad Marsh 50k — This is the morning version of Bad Marsh.  Same race, different time.  I’m hoping November won’t be too chilly at 6am.  I’m hoping to complete this race and this is what I’m going to be training for primarily.

December 1: Savannah River Bridge Run — My favorite race to be a part of.  I double pumped last year and that is my plan again this year.  I’m hoping to really PR the 5k and enjoy the run of the 10k.  Maybe this year they won’t run out of beer.

In between these three races, I’ve found some 5ks and a couple of half marathons I wouldn’t mind running.  It all depends on school responsibilities, so I’m keeping my schedule open.

If anyone happens to come across this blog, I hope to see you at these races!

New Shoes…

So my new trail shoes came in today….

These bad boys are the Inov-8 f-lite 230.  I’m hoping this is the only time you’ll see them this clean.

I’m about to head over to Stone Mountain (stomo!) to try them out.  I’m going to try them sockless first to see how they do because just walking around in my apartment they are super comfy.

And hello, summer.  It’s a toasty 87 degrees here in hotlanta today.

Tons of Changes!

First, it’s been forever.  Sorry about that.

As I write to you, I am blogging from my cozy apartment in Atlanta, GA.  Since January, it has been in the works to move to Atlanta.  The cost of living is better, more job opportunities, back to blessed (bless-ed) city life, etc.  That list really could go on.  As much as Savannah is a beautiful town, it’s a town.  Living in Bluffton and the Savannah area made me long to live in a city again.

I could not be happier.

I love… no, love Atlanta.  I have a great little one bedroom apartment with a balcony that looks out over North Peachtree Creek.  When it rains hard, the creek fills up and I can hear it rushing downstream over the rocks.

I live 20 minutes from Stone Mountain.  For my birthday, I purchased a parking pass so I can go to Stone Mountain anytime I want and save some moolah.  I’ve been about once a week for the past few weeks.  Stone Mountain has awesome trails to run and doing the walk-up trail is difficult but short so it’s a ton of fun to do.

I could go on and on, but the main point is I love it here.  Ever since I’ve moved here, things have just fallen into place.  I applied to and was accepted to Benedictine University for their online Masters program.  I’ll be doing their dual program for the MBA/Masters of Public Health. These two degrees are going to open up amazing career opportunities for me.

I’ve also been able to really enjoy running.  For my birthday, I ran a 5k to start the day off.  My plan was to run to just enjoy it and my birthday, no fuss.  I wasn’t sure I was used to hills enough to try to worry about time, anyway.  (PS- For the first few weeks these ATL hills kicked my butt.)  However, I was still able to come in at a few seconds over 36 minutes.  I was pretty excited to see that I kept a sub-12 minute pace, despite not running much at all this year and I was acclimating to hills.

Since the 5k, I’ve kicked it into gear with cross-training, as well.  My apartment complex has a decent fitness center and the stationary bike is my new best friend.  I’m pretty sure I bike more than I run most weeks, but I can tell that the biking and hiking at Stone Mountain are greatly benefiting my running.

I think that’s where this update will stop for now.  I don’t want to jinx how great things have been going, but I can’t complain right now.  Atlanta, keep treating this woman right!

January Food Journal: Day 30 (Last Day!)

Here it is.  The last day of the food journal.  I’ve decided that I’ll continue it on a different level.  I probably won’t do pictures, but I would like to keep in account what I eat.  I have the Eat This, Not That app and I think I’ll go back to counting calories that way.  I’d like go back to focusing on exercise on my blog, but continue to talk about eating at least weekly to keep me accountable.

Day 30:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: fried popcorn shrimp and a caesar salad
Supper: Hawaiian chicken and corn nibblers

There it is.  The whole shebang.  I’ll be looking through my food journal and I’ve been trying to see my weaknesses and my strengths.  I’ll say one thing already; I’m a little tired of salad.  Today, I’m going to have Chick-fil-a.  And as for other fast food, I don’t miss any of it.  Just CFA.

Happy (and healthy!) eating, folks!

January Food Journal: Days 22-29

I don’t have much to say.  This week the food journal is winding down.  I can honestly say I’m ready for it.  I’m stopping it at day 30 to make it a flat 30 days to analyze.   In the following week I’ll take a look see at my food and decide where to go from there.  I don’t miss much fast food, but I do really miss Chick-Fil-A.

Day 22: 
Breakfast:  none
Lunch: none
Supper: Five Guys little cheeseburger and fries

Day 23:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: cheddar potato soup and a salad with a chicken tender on top
Supper: 3 chicken and cheese taquitos

Day 24:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: Larry’s Animal sub and chips
Supper: toasted ravioli

Day 25:
Breakfast: two cinnamon rolls
Lunch: grilled tilapia (it was horrible) and a salad
Supper: Jersey Mike’s ham sub and bbq kettle chips

Day 26:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: leftover sub and mac n cheese
Supper: two crab cakes, potato salad and a caesar salad

Day 27:
Breakfast: slim fast shake
Lunch:  beef ramen
Supper: loaded bakes potato and a salad

Day 28:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: chicken feathers and fries
Supper: broccoli cheese soup and a chicken caesar salad

Day 29:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: seafood alfredo, salad and two breadsticks
Snack: caramel milkshake
Supper: ravioli in the grossest cream sauce i’ve ever made.