Today is Linkup Wednesday for #nerdgirlsontherun. Make sure to link back to both myself and Mallory at Bad Wolf Brunch and share with us how you have celebrated being a #nerdgirlontherun for the month. It could be a new outfit or a recap from Avengers race weekend or Star Wars Half weekend or a virtual one you have done. Have fun and we can't wait to read everyone's fun adventures! All you need to do is join the InLinkz at the bottom of the post! 

I adored this race last year and was looking forward to it very much this time as well.
We got in bed around 8:15 and woke up at 3:45. Talk about a good amount of sleep! I woke up feeling great and got dressed. 
We headed out around 4:30 and got over to the start line vary quickly and got an #OGEwokCrew pic before heading to the start. We ended up next to Kim and Gail and chatted with them for awhile and they are the sweetest ladies ever! For real! 
We started right on time and headed straight over the overpass and then quickly backstage to the team Disney building. It wasn't near as crowded as the day before but there was still a wide range of speeds. At the team Disney building was Boba Fett but we skipped him to move along. Next we continued backstage and it was REALLY dark. Surprisingly no one tripped or fell but it t was a bit dangerous. We finally got to Main Street around mile 2 but it was just a tease as we soon headed backstage for our first water stop and into tomorrowland. There were stormtroopers out by marvel hero HQ. 
We continued through the park, over towards small world and then backstage again.

This backstage area was first used at Tink and is super narrow. There is a tunnel here where they pumped in the sound of Darth Vader breathing which was a nice touch. We exited right on the Big Thunder Trail which was a bit sad. We continued through Frontierland and did a strange out and back all the way down to haunted mansion and back up the ramp through Adventureland. I think this was the first time we ran through Adventureland!
​
As you can tell so far, there are very few photo stops which was a bit strange. I think it was so they could sweep a bit easier. We stopped for a pic with the castle though before heading up Main St and over to the DCA.

By this point, the humidity is high and I was not feeling well. My hood was trapping heat in along with my long sleeve shirt. We headed down Buena Vista St and over to Hollywoodland and got in line for BB8. We then took turns going to the rest room and ended up waiting about 20 min and of course it was well worth it!

We then did a very strange part of the course. We exited behind Tower and ended up doing a long out and back to the bus terminal, around the bus terminal and back to where Tower was. The whole sequence was about a mile. It was very narrow and crowded and I would have much rather just been on the streets of Anaheim for another mile at the beginning. 
​
We finally got back in DCA and ran down through Carsland and towards the Pier. As we exited carsland the droids were out but the line was capped! Boo!

​We continued down the pier where I stopped to walk for a long time and took my long sleeve shirt off and felt much better! we continued backstage to where they had a cool cutout with the trash compactor. We decided to save that for the next day based on our outfits. 
​
We finally made it back into the park and ran on the grizzly trail before exiting towards downtown Disney. Right there were speeder bikes on Endor-of course the ewoks had to stop!

We continued through downtown Disney and finished! Part 1 of rebel challenge was done!

so this pic below  is interesting in that Devin instagrammed it and it ended up in an article! So crazy. 
Afterwards we saw Chris finish and headed to breakfast at GC before going back to shower and meet up for lunch at Cove Bar. We then went to the We Run Social meet up and had a great time!

We had a nice relaxing early dinner at Carthay and then headed off to bed for some much need rested but not before using our BFF BUFF (basically my new best friend). 
​
Overall, I enjoyed myself but I think the new routes with less time on the Anaheim streets and more time backstage doing out and backs is just a recipe for course crowding. I was super upset we didn't get to stop for the droids but that's life. 


Did you run the Star Wars 10k?  What did you think of it?

I've been very excited for this race as it is my first DL 5k race! 
Thursday was very busy-a seminar all day, first day of class and then down to Anaheim. I parked at 7:49, ran to the expo, got to bib pick up at 7:54, shirts at 7:57 and merchandise at7:58. I was able to shop and get most of what I wanted! Score however it made for a late night. All of the adrenaline kept me up so I went to the hotel, checked in, unpacked, and prepped for the next morning. I didn't fall asleep until 10 and slept like crap. 5:30 of sleep so was very slow moving in the morning and tried to take a Lyft to the start and that didn't work so I walked. 
Got a bit turned around but did bag check, got an awesome pic and headed to corrals 

I got in the corrals and tried to move up as much as I could but it was pretty crowded. The pre show was entraining with trivia and after the national anthem we started right on time.
I got a shoutout from Carissa for my outfit and it was very crowded so I had to bop and weave more than I would have liked. We headed up the on ramp and down again and then backstage by the team disney building. Chewy was the first character we got to. 
I got a pic with chewy (10 min wait) and continued on to a crowded course. I definitely went faster than I would have liked but I was trying to get to the next character.

​I stopped for a pic with my beloved small world holiday as we entered the backlot and then we continued down the big thunder trail! Sad that is going away but Star Wars land will be awesome

We continued by the castle all boarded up for the surprise Elton John concert that night (we didn't know that at the time!) and over to tomorrowland and I took a pic with the rebels-Sabine and Ezra (5 min wait)

We made our way to DCA and the mile 2 marker. In hollywoodland, BB8 WAS THERE! I waited 15 min because I knew he may not be out on the other races and/or may have a ridic line. ​

We continued through grizzly peak/airfield and out through the side (where the entrance was during Buena vista at construction) and through downtown Disney to the finish. 
I think my finishing time was around 1:13/1:14 but my running pace was about an 11 min mile. I definitely did some sprinting and lots of weaving. Towards the end was basically wall to wall people walking so I did my best. 

I definitely got a positive response to my costume which I loved especially from little girls. It was very humid (around 90% when we started) so I was sweating which made my headpiece uncomfortable by the end. 

​I really enjoyed this race-more than I thought I would. Next time I do a DL 5k at Tink, I need to get to the corral maybe a bit earlier and also move closer to the front. The wall at the beginning was not good. 

 Wish I could have gotten a pic with R2D2 and C3P0 but I don't regret waiting for BB8 for 20 min. If he is out again, that line will be crazy!
Afterwards I went to get breakfast, prepped for the 10k, shower, rolled and napped and headed out to hang out with Carolyn and Marilynn and then expo fun. 

Did you run the Star Wars 5k?

Hey #NERDGIRLSONTHERUN our first blog link up will be next Wednesday, Jan 27th!
Share your story with us! Introduce yourself, share a race recap, tell us what you are training for... we want to meet you! 

Another Tuesday, another Tuesday on the Run hosted by our favorites: 
Erika from MCM Mama Runs, Marcia from Marcia's Healthy Slice and Patty from No-Guilt Life.This week's topic is Expos. 

​I've already written before about Expos  and how I feel about them. Basically I like them and think of you go in with a plan, you can get a lot of good deals.

This past weekend I ran the Disneyland Star Wars weekend and definitely spent some time at the expo! I had to go to the Expo twice.

The first time I went, it was super quick. Basically I parked my car, ran to the Expo, got my bibs and shirts and ran into official merchandise right before it closed.
I ended up buying:

• A Star Wars race magnet for my office
• 3 sweat bands (2 rebel challenge and a weekend one)
• A black/red coast to coast shirt
• A Princess Leia half shirt

I definitely rushed through and didn't look fully at all of the merchandise. I even bought a size medium coast to coast shirt! I definitely wouldn't recommend doing that but for this race, I didn't have a choice.

I went back the next day to buy the Ariel New Balance shoes, get KT taped on my ankle (which I had never done before and it worked well), and shopped more in merchandise. They didn't have the wine glass and in person I didn't like the Christmas ornament so I passed.

We got the rebel alliance drink which was delicious. I love the rundisney cups!

we then visited ProCompression and each got a pair of socks for upcoming race weekends and stopped at the BFF BUFF STATION. I was very skeptical but tried it and loved it. Basically it's a handheld massage and it works wonders. I bought one haha

Afterwards I went to Fit2Run and stocked up on fuel as I was running low. While there I chatted with some guys in line and learned they do plan on re opening their store in LA very soon! Woo hoo!

After all of that, we were basically done and went to drop our stuff off at the car and headed to grab lunch in the park.

Overall, I thought the Star Wars half marathon weekend expo had a lot to offer. I went at closing the first day and opening the next day and it was not too crowded so if you can do either of those, I definitely recommend that.

What do you think of Expos?

Time for some weekly accountability! I will recapping how I have done on the 4 Well Rules over the last week: Eat Well, Sleep Well, Exercise Well and Be Well New Linkup for Monday! I will linking up with MissSippiPiddlin and HoHo Runs to talk about my week recap! Welcome to the 4 well rules that I try to follow as I go through my week! Let's get to it !

​EAT WELL
I did great with carbloading. I never felt lacking in my runs and also never felt overly full.
One thing that is not working is my pre race breakfast. I'm so bored with my oatmeal that I don't want to eat it! I bought some bagels to try out this weekend to see how they work and sit on my stomach. Those will be easy to travel with for sure!

SLEEP WELL
I rocked the sleep this week! I made it a habit to get ready for bed at 10 and was able to sleep 8 hours a night. The only night I did not get at least 7 hours was the night before the 5k mainly because I got to Anaheim so late. Those 5 hours and 30 min of sleep were rough but because I had slept so well the whole week before,I felt fine while running. I slept 7 hours the night before the 10k and half and woke up feeling amazing. The new goal for DL races is in the room by 7 and bed by 8.

EXERCISE WELL
Last week:
Monday: yoga-core
Tuesday: 2.5 mile run
Wednesday: Piyo lower body
Thursday: rest day
Friday: SW 5k
Saturday: SW 10k
Sunday: SW Half

This week:
Monday: yoga-recovery
Tuesday: 2.5 recovery miles
Wednesday: running strength-flutes
Thursday: 3 mile run
Friday: 8 min Cize abs and Piyo upper body
Saturday: 25 mile run (!!!)
Sunday: recovery yoga

BE WELL
Back to the grind! I'm all set for my classes and I'm furiously working to get as ahead as possible-I don't want to be doing class work while in WDW for Princess and Dark Side.
I have my first dissertation meeting on Sunday so we will see how that goes! I'm trying to get ahead on my class so I can focus more on my dissertation. May will be here before we know it and so will my final proposal for my dissertation, final project class and final paper! All due the weekend before and after Tink!

How was your week?

 I ran my final race of the year at the Santa Monica-Venice Christmas race. This is my 4th time running it and I was excited as it has always been a good time. This year they changed the course and also added self-seeding corrals. The bad news is they started the 10k and 5k together so the corrals would be needed and the course would probably be a bit crowded. 

We got up at 6:00, out the door at 6:40 and got down to Santa Monica around 7:00. We parked easy, got ready, had a potty break and went to the start to check out corrals. Devin and I did a quick warmup of 10 min and then hopped in corrals. My corral (9-9:59) was packed and I had to wait on the outside to enter the corral.

The race started on time and I think my corral was wave 4. My goal was to hover around 10 min mile and then negative split. I started well and it was nice to do the Venice Boardwalk first instead of last. Then we did 1 out and back and split from the 5k before the 10k did one large out and back, joined back with the 5k briefly and when they turned to the finish we did one final out and back that was about a mile. The race was basically a reverse of every past year. At the split, I found Devin who was having a rough race. I ran with him for a bit before he sent me on.

The only thing I didn't like was the lack of water stops, I had to run across the course each time as they weren't on any map and were also pretty small. For one of the final water stops I went to get water and some went from a run to the slowest walk ever. Luckily I was far enough back to be able to stop but seriously people! 

When we met up with the 5k, things were definitely congested. They had divided the 5k and 10k and some of the 5k walkers had migrated over which definitely caused a traffic jam as many of them had strollers. I navigated well and was able to get to an open area. As the 5k turned off to finish, the 10k had about a mile left. I kicked it into gear and could tell I probably needed to fuel more. I only took one Clif shot around mile 3 when I usually fuel every 2 miles (I should have known better!) but was trying to match up my fueling with the water stops. As I kept on, it was actually pretty warm since it has been so cold lately (turns out it was the start of another Santa Ana so when we finished it was a big humid and in the 70s when the turkey trot I had done the week before was in the 40s) but I kept on. As we rounded the corner I knew I was pretty close to my PR, if I could just hold on. .5 from the end, I started getting a side stitch and on my walk break I tried to work out. I tried to run again and it came back STRONG. so strong I slowed to a walk. What the heck? Ugh! I knew my PR was gone and after about a minute I felt better to run but not at full force. I finished as strong as I could. The finish line was closer than I envisioned so I probably could have kicked it a bit harder. I crossed in :58:46- 41 seconds after my PR. Boo :( 

To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I wish I could have seen the finish line photos (free race photos but I only had 3 and they were not good haha) because I bet I looked PISSED! I started crying-ugh. I know it's just a race but it's still frustrating to be so close to my goal and have something like a side cramp get in the way. I don't know if I would have been able to PR but it would have been nice to try. And now the 10k is the only distance I didn't PR in 2015 and it's the distance I ran the most. Boo. 

However being more positive, I almost completely did negative splits, I felt pretty comfortable until the end. Every mile was sub-10 and I definitely think I could run a half averaging 9:45 which would put me about 2:07. I definitely need a PR attempt soon. 

They had a ton of food at the finish-so much I went in search of boxes to pack it away. We got water, some nasty protein milk, nestle milk, skinny pop, kettle chips, Sriracha, a banana and more. Yay for snacks post race. We walked around the little expo area while we waited for everyone to finish.  

With the new course, the finish is in another area so we had almost a one mile to the car which was nice because we didn't have traffic getting out and it gave us time to cool down as well. We got back, showered and relaxed for the day drinking mulled wine, eating yummy food and watched Christmas specials. 

The corrals worked well but they definitely need to be expanded. One corral was 7:00-8:59 which is a wide range. My corral 9-9:59 was packed and could have used more of an area. Also, they probably need to split the 10k and 5k. My 5k pace is different than my 10k pace, so people in the area were all over the place time wise. 

The new course is nice but there were multiple times we were running directly into the sun (which is fine just make sure to have your sunglasses and a hat!). In the past, the portions with the sun in our eyes was run the other direction so it wasn't an issue until this year.  There was a lack of water stops. We didn't have a water stop the last 2 miles so next time I would just run with a water bottle to make sure I can fuel correctly. I think the side stitch/cramp was caused from fueling without water and then a lack of water at the end. 

Overall I did enjoy the race and do plan on running it again. Next year I will bring my own water bottle, fuel like I normally do and maybe even wear a hat. Maybe I'll bust out the Christmas solider outfit again?!? 


Has anyone else run a Christmas/holiday themed race lately?  

 I ran the LA Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. I opted to do both the 5k and 10k for the added challenge, to get in more miles and also for the training towards the New Years race and LA Marathon. 

I reviewed my recap from last year and came up with my plan for when to leave. Weds before was exciting as I bought my car! I was able to take it home straight from work and go grocery shopping and then prep for thanksgiving-including food for dinner, my dinner and everything else. 

I relaxed with Star Wars episode 4 and 2 drinks to celebrate my car (don't worry, they weren't strong)-a French 75 and Moscow mule. I feel asleep on the couch, got up to pee at 145 and actually decided to shop Target.com and got what I wanted and then got into bed. 

I got up at 5:30 and was out of the door at 6:00. I caught the train around 6:20. I was able to eat my breakfast on the train and also drink my tea. When I switched to the red line, I ate my banana. I got off the train at 7:04 and was down at the start area by 7:10 picking up my bib. I got all situated, and waited in line for the restroom.one thing I loved is they gave out boxers instead of shirts. They give out cotton shirts so I don't wear them often so boxers are definitely fun. 

 I finished at 7:40 and thought I had time for bag check. Well I was wrong. It was taking forever for bag check! It turns out people were doing bag check without bags! Trying to safety pin stuff inside of their boxers. They had no extra bags so it was a cluster. Eventually I got to the front as they were singing the national anthem and I tried to push as far forward as I could. The 5k starts 30 min before the 10k so I needed to get as close to sub 30 as I could. Well we started on time and off we went. Well not really as I ended up behind walkers and had to bop and weave. My legs felt just okay so I knew this may not be my day. Also, it was finally cold! It was 43 when I started and I haven't run in that cold of weather in a long time. 

We did some hills and looped around to the big hill next to the Walt Disney concert hall and I walked the whole thing. We then did an out and back and went back down that same hill (water stop is there), turned again and went down another hill. and over to spring street. Up until this point, my watch was pretty on point with the mile markers but as we headed to State St (fun fact: it was considered the Wall St of the west coast. Many movies are shot on it because it does look like NYC) I noticed we past the 4 mile marker for the 10k. Well we headed down and then did an out and back towards the finish. I noticed we were going further out than last year and I noticed I was getting closer to 3 miles but the mile marker was nowhere in sight. Uh oh-the course is long! There was no way I would go sub 30. I continued on, passed the mile 3 and eventually finished in 3.44 (WAY long!) in with a. I went back to check and the course last year was 3.2 but I assumed it from weaving but maybe not. 

I got some water, my medal and regrouped before heading off to start the 10k. With the course being long and me trying to run on feel, I ended up pushing a bit too hard. I also didn't pack my Powerade as last year they had Gatorade-no electrolyte this year and I knew for runs longer than 6, my body prefers to have it. I decided to try my best. 
I started slow as we went up and down the same hills as the 5k and I knew they can be challenging. On the big hill by the Walt Disney concert hall, a lady was going up backwards in her wheelchair. Rock on!

Instead of heading back towards state st, we do 3 more out and backs towards the Dorothy chandler Pavillion, below the buildings and back up to the new broad museum before heading back towards the start and on state st. 
Since i started later than I wanted, I knew I would have to bop and weave and when we were under the buildings, I kept getting trapped. As we headed back up I got to spread out a bit. I took water (basically all the same spot but since we pass t 3 times, it works) and continued on the downhill. I had been holding back and finally opened up going into state st. My goal was to drop my average to sub 10 (at one point it was 11 with the hills) and I knew I could get there if I pushed the last two miles. My downhill into state st was 8:57! Woohoo. I Continued down state st and decided to map what happened in the 5k since I remember last year we went farther in the 10k. Well imagine my surprise when we turned around in the same spot. Uh oh-we are going to be short!!  We did the turn around which was a water stop and I decided to see how fast I could take it. We finished in 5.7 (half a mile short) in 56:55. 

Well that really stinks. It's hard to fuel and run by feel when the races are too short and too long especially for the few hundred of us were crazy enough to run both races. Not to mention we don't get a special medal for running both and the 5k and 10k medal were the exact same (as my boyfriend said-did you steal a medal? why are the identical?) 

I got my bag and went to sit down and eat some food (I pushed hard at the end and felt a bit dizzy) and clean up so I could head home. I walked back to the train and got home in less than hour (including a Black Friday stop at cvs). 

Overall, I like the idea of running 9.3 before doing thanksgiving and also getting my long run out of the way for the weekend since it's always Usc's final game at home. However it was a bit disorganized for my liking. When I signed up they said there would be 2 package pickups (week before and day before) but they cut the day before without warning so I had to do day of pick-up, which I really don't like doing. Depending on price, I may do it next year. I may also branch out and try the Burbank Turkey Trot as they also have a 5k and 10k but I don't think you can run both. However they do have a race division that starts first so I probably wouldn't need to bop and weave. 

and more importantly, this ended my epic #RaceNovember with race 7 and 8! crazy crazy!!

Anyone else run a turkey trot? How did your race go? 

Well this race was definitely interesting! We have been trying to do a fun run for about 3 years (I know this because of Timehop on Facebook). This race popped up and we decided to do it! 

We couldn't do package pickup so we decided to just do it before the race and they charged us 5 dollars for the opportunity-they definitely made good money off of that! Since we figured we would want to shower after, we decided to make a weekend out of it. I went over to Mallorys on Friday night, we ran errands to buy last minute items (including shorts for me because I FORGOT TO PACK THEM!), had lunch and then headed down to Anaheim. We got a hotel for Saturday night so we went to settle in, grab a quick lunch at Tortilla Jos and then headed to Irvine after stopping for a Starbucks kick. 
Package pickup started at 3, pre party at 430 and race at 530. We got there at 330 to see tape set up in out and back in the parking lot. Yeah this is not going to go as planned. 

We went to check in, go back to the car to get all of our glow stuff on, grabbed some pics, and go to the pre party. It was basically a bunch of teenagers and families with little kids. We saw the first color throw and I looked at Mallory and said-we need a drink. Yes the race sold drinks and food so we went and had a gin and tonic with a splash of cranberry and took in the sights from far back. ​

we did a potty break and learned the corrals would open "soon" so we went back to the pre-party and listened to a rapper who forgot the lyrics and had to start over. At that point, we saw people getting in corrals so headed over. Basically it was a line that they randomly divided into groups. We ended up in the second group. We started about 15 min after the official start time without much of an idea what was going on because the speaker wasn't working. 

When we got to the front, they mentioned runners to the left and walkers to the right and no one moved. Yup, that is not going to work. When we got the countdown we tried our best but it was hard as we were heading down a hill back towards to the amphitheater and NO lights. I mean nothing. There is sand and rocks and a hill and I knew this was insanely dangerous and regretted every decision I had to run this. Out came my cell phone for the light and no one tripped around us (basically a miracle!)  and we wandered around the amphitheater. As we left we hit the first color zone and put our sunglasses on and basically had a teenager throw a handful of the color straight at my skirt. Okay we will try again the next time. We hit another color Zone as we came to the parking lot and same thing. So now I just have crazy amounts of color on both sides of my skirt-hopefully it will come out. We started the endless up and down the parking lot. 

We noticed that there was still half the people left in the chute and also crazy traffic of people still parking and picking up their bibs. Very interesting. The only thing that happens in the parking lot was 2 small water stops (which we needed to get the color out of our throats) and another color zone where I actually got color on my shirt-woo-hoo!. Towards the end, there were black lights set up so we got a picture.

we finished the race and there was still at least 25% of people that did not even start. The end was basically just people standing by the finish lines taking pictures of themselves all lit up. According to Mallorys Nike+ app, we ran about 2.5 miles. 

We got our color packet, I found water under a table-mind you the parking lot is dark with no lights-and we headed to the stage where the after party had not started yet. We threw some color but we're over it quickly. We handed our color to some teens that we're so excited and headed to the car. We went into cleanup mode and with plastic bags, baby wipes and towels. In all honesty, we didn't get that much stuff in our hair or on us. The thing that got the most color was my skirt and there were thick patches where the color had been thrown. We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready and headed to Disneyland for some nighttime fun!

Overall, I'm glad we did this but would not do it again. The race was not organized well and not to mention the course was dangerous with no light. I would recommend them to put black lights everywhere so you can really see everyone glow and add in more color zones where the people aren't at close range so you can get color spread out. 


TIPS FOR A COLOR RUN/BLACKLIGHT RUN:

• Wear the shirt they give you, you won't care if it gets ruined
• Run in old shoes. I had saved a pair of shoes I retired two years ago and they came in handy
• Buy glow necklaces and bracelets and you can get them for cheap at Target
• Bring sunglasses-cheap ones from the dollar store-so you don't get color in your eyes
• If there are lots of color zones, wear a hat (we actually bought the old lady hats from the dollar store but didn't need them)
• Wear a runner's belt and make sure to have a plastic bag for your phone 
• Bring a change of clothes. Basically I had a layer of clothes under my running outfit so I could ride home in that 
• Bring old towels/buy cheap throw at towels for your car to sit on after
• Pack plastic bags to store your clothes in after. I had one bag for trash, one bag for shoes and one bag for clothes 
• Soak your clothes right after. We soaked our things in the sink in the hotel and then let them dry and I washed them again when I got home 

I don't plan on doing Blacklight Run but may consider doing the Color Run to try it during the day. 


Have you ever done a Color Run? What were your thoughts on it ? 

Another Tuesday, another Tuesday on the Run hosted by our favorites: 
Erika from MCM Mama Runs, Marcia from Marcia's Healthy Slice and Patty from No-Guilt Life.This week's topic is Race Dreams. 

Sleep is one of my priorities: the more sleep I get, the more chance I have to dream. And boy do I get crazy dreams around race days. I have never (knock on wood and forever stay this way!) have had trouble sleeping before a race, the one time I did was because I had tea in the afternoon and it kept me up-no bueno. 

My dreams are usually nightmare variety such as :
1. missing my bus to a race
2. oversleeping
3. seeing the race but not being able to get in the corral
4. Not having a bib
5. realizing I am in Disneyland for a race and the race has been moved to Disney world

However I have had good race dreams:
1. PRing the NYC marathon (which I did but not in the time in my dream!)
2. Having super speed and running a sub 7 min mile 
3. Waking up to feel refreshed and rocking a race

How about you? Do you often dream about your runs and races the nights before? 

Time for some weekly accountability! I will recapping how I have done on the 4 Well Rules over the last week: Eat Well, Sleep Well, Exercise Well and Be Well New Linkup for Monday! I will linking up with MissSippiPiddlin and HoHo Runs to talk about my week recap! Welcome to the 4 well rules that I try to follow as I go through my week! Let's get to it !

EAT WELL
I did much better on eating and basically was able to have leftovers which I will continue for this week! It's so nice to have dinner waiting when I get home.
This week I'm going to eat normal and start carbloading on weds and thurs through Sunday-gotta fuel those 3 runs.

SLEEP WELL
I rocked the sleep this week! I made it a habit to get ready for bed at 10 and was able to sleep 8 hours a night. I'm feeling great!
My goal is to keep this up to help with the lack of sleep I will have before the races. The 5k will be rough as I have a conference and class before and probably won't get to Anaheim until 8 or so not including prepping and getting to sleep for that 4am wake up.

EXERCISE WELL
Last week:
Monday: rest day
Tuesday: Recovery Yoga-too sore to run!
Wednesday: running strength and Cize Ab
Thursday: 3 mile run with cadence and form drills
Friday: Piyo lower body and weights
Saturday: speed work (8x400)
Sunday: rest day

This week:
Monday: yoga-core
Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: Piyo lower body
Thursday: yoga
Friday: Star Wars 5k
Saturday: Star Wars 10k
Sunday: Star Wars Half

BE WELL
Back to the grind! I got a lot done at work and today is the first day of the semester so the office will be busy all day. I'm ahead on my reading which is nice but want my syllabi to get even more ahead. Today is my first dissertation meeting-YAYAY!

How was your week?

Hi all! Linkup Friday!! Thanks to our amazing hostesses: the DC Trifecta Bloggers (Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, Mar from Mar on the Run, and Cynthia from You Signed Up For What?!). This week's topic is Food and Drink. 

I watched the Season Premiere of The Biggest Loser earlier this week and am now watching the new show My Diet is Better Than Yours and I am really liking it. Basically, the contestants picked a diet guru to be their guide. They go back home to work out and eat healthy. They met up again for a weigh-in and can switch gurus if they want. I like the idea that they are showcasing diets that don't just restrict eating and they also have to balance getting healthy with their real life. As each person weighs in, they announce a good statistics that happened (smaller waist, lower blood pressure, etc) and I think it makes weight loss look more attainable (unlike the Biggest Loser that can make it seem like 20 lb weight loss in a week is normal). 

But enough about tv, and more about me! I have alluded to it in other posts but I am on a healthy living kick now. I have always been pretty healthy but definitely let it go over the holidays. I wasn't sleeping, eating right and indulging too much and not getting my workout ins. However it is now 2016 and I am on the healthy living track and trying to lose the weight I put on. Here are the things I am implementing to get healthy:

1. Workouts
This used to never be an issue but all of the stress of work and school took a lot out of me! Now I am making sure to get in my 3 runs a week, do core work 3x a week, a Piyo day, a yoga day and a rest day. I am aiming for at least 30 min of exercise a day and I hope 

2. Healthy Eating
I am back to being low carb, high fat and lots of veggies and fruits. I need to cut out the crap and and just eat real food. 

3. Low carb until a race
The one thing about racing a lot as I did in 2015 is that I needed to carbload to fuel my runs. It has worked for my body to be low carb and then just carbload right before a race, it gives me enough energy to get through it all. However, when I was eating more sugar carbs through the holiday, the carbload made me feel worse! I am hoping sticking to low carb and then high carb will help improve my runs. 

4. Sleep
I am making it a habit to get into bed by 10:15 PM and try and get 8 hours of sleep. The struggle has been when I get up at 6:15 it is so dark that I fall back asleep. I am going to work on getting up on time and not going back to sleep. 

5. Indulge but wisely
I love sweets, wine and more. I need be really mindful of when I indulge as a daily indulgence is not helpful. 

What changes are you making this new year?