Yesterday, I ran 5 miles on June 5 for NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!

I’ve had a few wedding snafus lately, which sent my stress straight through the roof. So I ran. Yesterday was another one of those days where I got home from the hospital and literally did not want to budge off the couch. I whined about it for an hour and then finally forced myself to change into my running clothes and get my Garmin woken up. I told myself that if I ran 2 miles, I’d be content. But then I decided I should run 4, so I ran down whatever road I felt like and listened to what my body was saying (mainly SLOW DOWN!!!…so I did).

At the end of 4 miles, I was back to my front door. So I walked for a minute and decided my legs still felt pretty darn good. So I took off running for another mile. Up a gigantic hill. Needless to say, it was probably the best run I’ve had in a while in that I felt like I could just keep running forever.

I used to frown upon walk breaks but clearly they help me run further.

I didn’t remember that it was National Running Day until after my run, and then I was pleased with myself for not being a wimp and skipping out on the perfect weather (which is sooo rare for June).

And then I started thinking about why I run. At first I started running because my dad runs and I wanted to be just like him. And then I kept running because I was on the track/cross-country teams. In college, I started out on the cross-country team and then eventually left the team and started running on my own because I was struggling with some really hard to break disordered eating patterns.

Now I run because it keeps my sanity and keeps me healthy.

I didn’t start think about running for weight loss again until my first dress fitting, when my seamstress told me she would “fix my back fat” and that “even size 2 brides get this” if the dress isn’t fit correctly.

I balked.

I may not be size 2 but at 5’4 and 120 pounds, I am the last thing from fat. If she says that to me, an arguably fit and young girl I cannot imagine what she says to others. It made me sad. And kind of shook me.

So lately I’ve been fighting the battle of well I look good and shouldn’t be self conscious about my weight but now I definitely am. The solution has been focusing on healthy eating and just {relaxing} because *no-one* is going to look at me in my wedding dress and think “dang, that girl looks like a chunky monkey”.

Le sigh. Sometimes being a woman is quite frustrating.

Wedding brain

Some people get pregnant brain. I’m pretty sure wedding brain is a thing though, and I have it. I’m almost a doctor right? So I can say that? {Sure…}

I cannot concentrate at all during rotations. All I can think about is Pinterest and Lover.ly and how to best design my wedding. Do I want the chevron paper straws or the polka dot paper straws? Burlap table runners or no table runners? What should I make for my bridesmaids? Seriously y’all, the list goes on an on.

And then I try to distract myself with something else. Like cats. And babies (of which I see an abundance of at the hospital). And then my uterus is like “I’d like to have something cute now kthanxbye”.

So basically I go from being completely lost in wedding details to being 5 years ahead in my marriage and thinking about kids. Seriously? Brain, you just need to calm. down. now.

I ran 4 miles today in an attempt to get my mind to slow down a little. And that calm lasted through showering, some wine, and dinner. And then it was back to the pinning, the Southern Wedding mag browsing, and the fretting over the small things.

{Some super cute Southern details that I’ve decided must be present at my nuptials}

Paper straws

Burlap table runners

Lots of pictures and cute sayings

A groom’s cake (although I knew this all along and have had it ordered for a good 6 months…)

Red velvet

Mason jars for our sand unity ceremony

White linen for an aisle runner

5 things for a gloomy Sunday evening

So apparently blogging is not my forte. I can plan a wedding + deal with school but write a daily blog post? Apparently my brain just cannot handle that.

A lot has happened since my last post. Okay, at least it feels that way because I’ve caught the wedding & marriage bug and cannot focus on anything else. Patients? Sorry, I’m planning my wedding, I don’t have time for your ear infection (JK, except not 100%…focus has really been a challenge lately).

1. I’ve finally decided on my wedding theme. Thank goodness, because the countdown is dwindling. Again, with the focus though…Pinterest clouded my vision from my moment we got engaged because there was SO MUCH AWESOME EVERYWHERE. And then I discovered Southern Weddings Magazine and a light bulb came on. I live in the South, I love the South, we definitely need a have a Southern chic (a.k.a elegant + rustic) wedding. Done and done.

2. I’ve finally decided to change my name. My family had been pressuring me to make the decision TO change my name and I know my future in-laws were expecting it (although not getting involved in it at all, thank goodness they rock). I waffled back and forth between hyphenating, having two middle names, not changing my name, and just dropping my maiden name altogether. Well….I think I have *officially* settled on keep my middle name and change my last name. Phew.

3. I have been rocking the running. I’ve settled at 18-20 miles per week and hope to keep increasing mileage. Love it.

4. I had my first wedding dress fitting and am back in love with my dress. I suffered from some dress regret but putting on something other than the sample of my dress seemed to have fixed that issue.

5. I have been planking like a boss…my dress is a ball gown and I want my poor skinny arms to look a little less pitiful

Kind of Friday, y’all

Today is my Friday because I HAVE TOMORROW OFF! Ok, well I have to stop at the hospital first thing in the morning to check on some patients but then I am free from Friday starting at 7 am – Monday. Which is a very rare occurrence and I’m not sure how I got lucky enough to land a Friday AND Memorial Day off. I have never been this lucky before. And with no reason to pop into the hospital this weekend, I’m kind of at a loss of how I am going to spend all of my time.

I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Also, yesterday, I had the best. run. ever.

I wasn’t planning on it being a fast run. And when I started running, I really didn’t want to run. My legs felt like lead and all I really wanted to do was sit on the couch and eat macaroni and cheese (which is what I did for dinner…’twas perfect). But what started out as a begrudgingly okay 4 mile run turned into a super fast “I must’ve eaten my Wheaties” run.

As in, all of my miles were sub-9:00 min.

Mile 1- 8:46

Mile 2- 8:11

Mile 3- 8:33

Mile 4- 8:04

I think the overall pace ended up being something like 8:24. I spent the cool-down walk back home amazed.

And then I had another awesome-sauce 4 mile run again today. I started out with the plan to run for 2 minutes because I got home later than usual and just wanted to eat dinner and shower (this seems to be a theme). But once I started running I realized that it was beautiful out and my legs were still feeling good after yesterday’s run so I decided to run 3. And then 3 turned into 4. I don’t remember my splits (and let’s me honest, I’m too lazy to walk the 100 ft over to my Garmin to check them out) but I finished with an overall 8:34 pace and I do know that all of my miles were sub-9:00 minutes again!

Improvement feels darn good.

I’m also starting a challenge. A 20 day plank challenge. Because my 2nd wedding dress fitting is t-minus 20 days away and I feel like I need to at least pretend to do some combo ab/arm work. I’m already up to about 1 minute of planking so today I am going to start with that.

DAY 1 – 1 MIN /// DAY 11 – 3 min ///
DAY 2 – 1.5 MIN /// DAY 12 – 3.5 MIN ///
DAY3 – 1.5 MIN /// DAY 13 – 3.5 ///
DAY 4 – 2 MIN/// DAY 14 – 3.5 MIN ///
DAY 5 – 2 MIN /// DAY 15 3.5 MIN ///
DAY 6 – 2 MIN /// DAY 16 – 4 MIN ///
DAY 7 – 2.5 MIN /// DAY 17 – 4 MIN ///
DAY 8 – 2.5 MIN /// DAY 18 – 4 MIN ///
DAY 9 – 2.5 MIN /// DAY 19 – 4.5 MIN ///
DAY 10 – 3 MIN /// DAY 20 – 5 MIN ///

Ok. Time to plank, shower, and then become a lazy lump on the couch.

I made an executive decision this morning at 5:45 am: sleep until 6, not wear my awesome new outfit because I wouldn’t have time to iron, and buy lunch (hospital cafeteria sushi may sound sketchy but our cafeteria had a huge healthy eating campaign and all of the food is surprisingly amazing).

And yet here I am, at 7:30 am, blogging from the hospital because I somehow managed to get here early and finish all of my first thing in the morning obligations early. Who am I?

I’m not a person who is ever late, but usually I’m the type of person who does thing just in time in terms of morning schedules. I have it down to a T so when it takes less time than usual, I am mega thrown off. Not helpful considering yesterday was Tuesday and I thought it was Thursday all day. So today is Wednesday which means it’s Friday, right?

Speaking of Friday, I definitely have a 4 day weekend this weekend. I’m not sure how this happened, but my monthly Friday off matched up with Memorial Day weekend so I will definitely be partying (a.k.a running and sleeping and eating to my heart’s content) all weekend.

And now onto running. Yesterday I did not feel like running. At all. I took Monday off because it was storming and because I had gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before. I didn’t get much more sleep Tuesday night but decided I needed to go out for at least a little jog. So I promised 20 minutes to myself and decided if I felt good after that I could keep going but if I felt bad I could head home. So I ditched my GPS watch and swapped it for my regular old digital watch and headed out the door. Well, I felt mediocre but I still ran 30 minutes, which I estimated to be only slightly over 3 miles because girl was slogging it. 

What is your best motivation tip?

I bargain with myself about the amount of time I need to run. And then I just put my running clothes on. Once their on I usually feel a little more motivated.

Do you have a daily morning schedule that you always follow?

I definitely do. I wake up, shower/wash up, make coffee and breakfast, lay out my outfit for the day, then eat breakfast in bed before dressing and sprinting out the door.

What are your run plans for the day? 

I have 4 miles planned for today.

Sunday night blahs

Sunday nights surprisingly aren’t my least favorite night of the week. In the Runs for Dessert household Sunday = the day of relaxation. And let’s just be real, I love relaxation.

But right now Sundays are less than thrilling for me.

The boy and I are living 2 hours apart for my current rotation, which means that I only get to see the fiance on Saturday and part of Sunday. I’m super busy during the week and I actually find myself enjoying “freedom” in the evenings after a long day (a.k.a being apart is less noticeable because I’m always tired/busy/getting ready for the next day). In my dreams, he doesn’t have any day to day obligations and can stay with me as long as he wants (and feed me chocolate and strawberries and string cheese). Unfortunately, that’s just not real life. Unfortunately.

(Seriously. Except not too seriously. I might get bored and spend my grocery and gas money on shoes.)

So what this means for me now is that Sundays end up being good practice in self-soothing. At the hospital, we always tell parents that their babies need to learn the art of self-soothing and once they do life will become a little bit less hectic. But we also tell parents self-soothing for infants means being comforted and held and loved by parents. So it’s a little different for adults but essentially boils down to the same thing. Self-soothing = helping yourself feel less like a train wreck.

In my case, it means comforting myself with awesome things.

What this translates to is good food, trashy TV, and comfy clothes. Tonight my line-up is “Married to Jonas”/”What Would Ryan Lochte Do?”/anything on Bravo, pesto pizza from Trader Joe’s, and my new favorite summer jammies. And some sleepy time tea in hopes that I can beat the inevitable Sunday night insomnia.

But enough whine whine whine (too bad it’s not wine wine wine…)

Onto running!!!

Today’s run: 2 super easy miles outside. It was approximately 1000% humidity but thankfully only about 70 degrees and cloudy. My legs still were not super happy after 3 4-milers in a row. It’s been a while since I’ve done that while running outside (I could probably run forever on a treadmill and not get sore unless I do intervals). I stopped to stretch once not out of necessity but just because I felt like taking a little break. 

I’ve been compression socking/rolling with The Stick/stretching religiously/super hydrating and my legs are still a little bit wonky feeling but are feeling a million times better than they have been lately.

What are your anti-injury tips? 

What’s your favorite way to spend a lazy day?

So much awesome & 5 things

So, today’s run was literally the best run I’ve had in probably 2 weeks.

4 miles!!!! Without IT band pain/feeling like my legs were about to just give up and make me sit down on the pavement. 

Y’all, my second mile was 8:33 and my overall pace was 8:50. This pace felt like flying compared to my slow, slogging, and quite frankly painful runs of earlier this week and last week. I didn’t have to stop and stretch my pitiful IT bands at all. In fact, my legs didn’t complain about anything except for the occasional “really, another hill?”. I call that a Saturday miracle.

I can’t even explain how amazing I felt to not feel miserable.

Which led me to some realizations:

1) Getting to wake up naturally without an alarm means I actually get to wake up feeling rested.

2) Not standing for 10-11 hours before running means my legs aren’t pre-worn out and my IT bands aren’t pre-tightened

3) Espresso with stevia + coconut/almond milk and a healthy dose of trail mix = morning happiness

4) Long hills are a lot more conquerable when you feel fresh and happy and rested

5) I love running again!

Tonight the boy and I are going out to celebrate our anniversary. That’ll make one year too many that he has put up with my craziness. I am so thankful for him.

Oh happy day

It’s Saturday!!!! That means sleeping in, wearing pajamas until 10 am, and drinking coffee while watching my favorite show ever: Sex & The City. Which basically means my morning is perfect. 

And to think I used to be ashamed that it was my favorite show because all of my friends were being nerdy and sophisticated. Now I’m just like I want to wear tutus outside and buy high heels and go out to fabulous places and have their social life. Med school kind of takes that away…

And now for a “run-cap” 

Thursday run: 4 miles outside. My legs felt a little like cinder blocks and I had to stop and stretch my poor IT bands once but my body is finally adjusting to my amazing Pure Flows. After years and years and years of running in in a heavy shoe, I just can’t believe how free it feels to be in a shoe. Now if only my body would cooperate. 

Friday: 4 miles outside. Muuuuuuch better than my run on Thursday but my legs were still kind of “yeah, about this running thing…we don’t like it”. I predict that is because I have been running up and down a few more hills than I’m used to since only a few weeks ago I was still the treadmill queen at awkward times of the night. 

Saturday: I have a 3-4 miler planned. Depending on how my legs react. And *after* I drink copious amounts of espresso. 

 

Favorite things

Y’all, today was LONG. Like, get to the hospital at 6 am and only have a 15 minute break the entire day kind of long. I got to see *a lot* of interesting (and heart-wrenching) cases so, after a day like that, there were only a few things that could be appropriate for the end of the day. And I’m not even going to pretend that comfort food and retail therapy don’t help: a shopping spree at Target, a good run, and an entire box of mac & cheese for dinner = perfect end to the Monday that wanted to try to kick me in shins.

Oh, and tea. Hot tea solves everything.

//Favorite snack// Ranch wheat thins.

//Favorite tea//Lemon zinger

//Favorite mac and cheese// Annie’s white cheddar (made with mix of almond + coconut milk…yumm-0)

//Favorite running shoes// Brooks PureFlow 2

//Favorite bad TV show// Real Housewives of Orange County

Speaking of favorite running shoes, my mileage has been *lower* than usual lately because I finally decided to trade in my pair of old clunky (but totally reliable) Sauconys for a pair of Brooks PureFlow 2s. I’ve been reading reviews on them for probably a good 2 months and finally decided to bite the bullet and buy them. But after running in a heavier neutral shoe for years and years and years, being in a more minimal shoe is definitely a little bit confusing for my body.

The overall result of my purchase? Pure love. They’re like running on clouds…nice and plush yet not so cushioned that I feel like I’m trying to run through ankle-deep sand. Plus they’re pink.

Today’s run was 21 minutes in the cool weather…it felt strangely like fall with all of the trees and the 70 degree weather. I wanted to keep running but my IT bands have felt a little twingy lately with the new shoe adjustments so I decided to take it easy and head home for some stretching and cheesy noodles.

Also, did you know that May is National Runner’s Month? 

I didn’t until I broke out my latest issue of Runner’s World and saw an ad for it…

The problem with being a running bride

Ok, so there isn’t really a *legit* problem here. Being a running bride has been a blessing in disguise…no major “oh my gosh I need to lose weight” moments have plagued me as of yet. No, this is more like an nuisance.

And I only have two words: Tan. Lines.

Living in the Southeast means that temperatures rise fairly quickly once spring hits. This is lovely, except when you’re getting married in a strapless dress in July and you’re the kind of girl who just needs to think about tanning to get a tan (I know, I know…some people would love this “problem”).

I’ve been resorting to wearing t-shirts for most of my runs but it’s been getting a teensy bit too warm for that. Plus I’m not sure what is worse: t-shirt tan lines or tank top tan lines.

I’m not the type to lay out in the sun to “even” everything out but I also don’t think it’s appropriate to run around in tube tops. I’m not super well endowed but still…I like to keep it klassy.

I’ve thought about investing in some self-tanner to see what looks best with my skin tone but haven’t done so yet out of fear of ending up looking like a brunette carrot.

There are a few options: a) slather on sunscreen and hope that helps, b) don’t run, or c) bite the bullet and try some self-tanner now so that the stuff has a chance to wear off in the case of a mishap.

A) is something that I already always attempt to do. B) is just not an option, I would fear for the safety of those around me if I couldn’t run. And C)…I think C may be the winner. I know that even with sunscreen I will get tan. And getting tan around a tank top means that I will have tan lines. Any tips for self tanners that doesn’t make you look ridic and orange?

Also, I’m not sure if it would have been possible for me to say the word tan more times in this post. This may be a world record. Holy guacamole, ya’ll.

Today’s run: 2 slow miles. My legs have been rebelling and my hamstrings have been inappropriately tight so I took it easy.

What were your wedding dilemmas? 

How do you even out tan lines? 

What was your Sunday run?

And Happy Mother’s DAY!!!!