All posts by harkey12

Pre-Valentine’s Day Chocolate

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, , ,

Happy Thursday! Or Happy Valentine’s Eve! It’s beautiful sunny day here, and I’m lovin’ it. Fifty degrees feels marvelous after the snow and single digit temps last week.

So today has been pretty normal. I woke up early and got in my 4-mile run – my weekly Thursday routine.

IMG_3275I started out SO slow. I was tired and pretty fatigued from running + Jazzercise yesterday. So for the first mile, I was just barely jogging and throwing a pity party for myself. But then I thought, “This is the perfect time to throw in some speed work.” Running at full throttle with extremely tired quads is the perfect marathon training. It’s a good way to figure out how you may be feeling in the second half/last 10K of the race. So I pushed through 3 sets of 1.5(ish) minute sprints up the worst hills on my route. I’m not crazy – I was just determined. I also wanted to hurry up and get home. 🙂 So the faster I ran, the raster I would be done!

I arrived home to a whiny doggie, so I walked Mac around the block since I had a few minutes to spare before my morning rush started. Once we got home, I got ready and made it to work at my usual 15 minutes ’til 8. I had my normal breakfast foods with me…

IMG_3273But after eating this, I knew today it wasn’t going to last me long. I’ve been craving chocolate and sweets like there is no tomorrow. Around 10 a.m., it got bad. By the time lunch rolled around, I was almost sick. Have you ever gotten this way? I rarely crave foods this intensely, but I was ready to do anything to get my hands on some chocolate. Nick brought some Thin Mints home yesterday, so luckily I snagged a couple of those for my lunch dessert, but they didn’t quite do the trick.

Yes, I’m hormonal this week, and that never helps. And also, I’ve been working out a little more than normal by teaching extra classes this week. Maybe my body just wants some extra calories and sugar? Either way, I will definitely be getting a small sugar fix soon…like tomorrow maybe??!

val1I’m just taking my craving as a sign that my body is ready and excited for Valentine’s Day goodies!

trufflesNick, if you are reading this, please have some chocolate truffles delivered to my office tomorrow morning by 10 a.m. Please and thank you. 🙂  hah! Some of these might be nice too…

master_CHCC041In all seriousness, I will probably just end up buying myself some V-day chocolate tonight, eat a few pieces, and then share the rest with my Jazzercise ladies tomorrow night. I’m also considering bringing some red wine to use as a door-prize for anyone that comes to class tomorrow. I’m hoping at least a small handful of students decide to come dance regardless of the holiday!

Well I’m off to put together a new song set for tonight and find some sugar before my mind explodes. 🙂  Have a great night and I’ll see ya tomorrow for Valentine’s Day!

Shoes, Races & Jazzercise

Jazzercise, Running, , , , ,

Happy Tuesday! It’s a sunshiny day here in SGF, and I’m loving it! Our 7 day forecast is also showing highs in the upper-50’s, so that makes me extra happy. Fifty degrees + lots of sunshine = clear sidewalks for me to run on. Yay!

New Shoes

Last night when I got home, I had a special delivery waiting for me on my doorstep!

IMG_3267My shoes had arrived from Zappos!! I of course immediately ripped open the box to dig out my new running shoes. And they were so pretty – just as I had imagined.

IMG_3270I decided to go with the Mizuno Wave Rider 16 running shoes in this pretty rose color. It’s not quite red and not quite pink. I kinda like it!

IMG_3271Bonus points to the first person to spot the doggie in this picture!

IMG_3272HA! Mac is always so curious.

Since I was subbing 6:45 Jazzercise last night, I decided I would try out these shoes on the dance floor first since my next couple of runs are bound to be a little slushy and salty still from the melting snow. I’m definitely not taking my brand new shoes out until the streets have dried up completely!

I’m happy to report that they fit great and felt extra light and springy while I taught class last night. They offer lots of arch support and had a lot of extra room in the toe bed. This isn’t necessarily ideal for Jazzercise shoes, but it’s perfect for shoes that I will most likely be wearing in my upcoming races. My toes will appreciate the extra space and the mesh venting across the top during the 26.2! So far, I give them 2 thumbs up!

And speaking of upcoming races, I got a little trigger happy and registered for another race last night.

gologo
The Go! St. Louis Marathon Weekend will take place on April 6, and I’m pretty darn excited to be a part of it! They say that thousand and thousands of people come out to race this event, so it’s going to be an awesome experience. Plus, since it is 1 month after my first marathon in Little Rock, this marathon will be one of two things. Either it will be a race to redeem myself and do better if I totally bonk during the Little Rock race, OR it will be a chance for me to set a new marathon PR. Either way, I’m excited that this highly-recommended event is close to home and timed just far enough apart from Little Rock to make it doable! I’ll have a few weeks to let my body forget about the pain before I do it all over again. 🙂

Jazzercise Marathon

This week, I’ve got a different type of marathon going on though. By the time this upcoming Saturday rolls around, I will have taught 9 classes since Sunday morning. Holy cow, I’m tired just thinking about it. At least my week is front-heavy (teaching doubles Monday-Wednesday) so by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around, I will only have 1 class and it should feel like a breeze to be done and home at 7 pm! After I get my Saturday morning run in, I’m going to collapse on the couch for a much deserved nap. Whew!  On a positive note, all of these classes gives me more chances to wear my new tennies and get them broken in faster. 🙂

Well I’m off to change up my song set for this evening. I need some fresh tunes! I hope you have a wonderful evening – see ya later!

Snow and Caffeine

Daily Life!, Food for Thought, , , , , ,

Happy Monday! I hope you all had great weekends and were ready for the awesome Monday morning commute today in the mini-blizzard that mother nature decided to drop on us…sighhhhh. Luckily, the snow didn’t mess up my day in anyway, so I’m not that angry about it. I still made it to Jazzercise this morning at 5:30 (after some slipping and sliding). And I had one brave student come workout with me!

IMG_3264I stood inside the door of the center watching it pour snow outside. I was pretty sure no one was going to come, so when that one brave soul pulled into the parking lot, I was ecstatic.

We had a quick and fun class followed by me frantically driving home to get ready for work and on the road before the mad rush happened during the bad weather. I beat most of the traffic and made it to work in one piece despite the 1.5 inches of snow on the road. Luckily, the sun also decided to come out mid-morning so the roads were clear and dry for my trip home for lunch. So it’s been a good snow day. Weird, right? I haven’t really had a good snow day all winter. Hopefully this is a sign that winter is on it’s way out soon!

Since I was rushing around to beat morning rush hour, I didn’t have time for my normal coffee at home while I was getting ready. So once I got to work I downed my mug of coffee (holds about 3.5 cups) and was needing more to fight off a small headache. I borrowed some Dunkin Donuts original blend and used the fancy Keurig machine in our breakroom. That was some of the strongest and most delicious coffee I’ve had in a long time!

0088133400046_500X500So I had about 7 whole cups of coffee before 11 a.m. I was basically vibrating from all the caffeine. I couldn’t sit still, and I was so happy and optimistic that my coworkers were ready to kill me. It was a good morning to say the least, but now I’m coming down hard. Nap time, anyone?!

Lunch

Lunch was quick and easy today since I made my awesome chili in the Crockpot yesterday. Leftover chili on a snow day was the perfect comfort food.

IMG_3265But now my leftovers are almost gone. I need to make a bigger batch next time!

And now I’m pondering Valentine’s Day since it’s this Friday. I’m already craving chocolate like the cocoa bean is going extinct. It’s bad. Nick and I almost through an entire bag of mini Reese’s Peanut Butter hearts yesterday. That along with the donuts was just about more sugar than I should need in a whole week.

IMG_3266So maybe I’ll luck out and just get flowers. Flowers are pretty and smell good and they don’t cause tons of guilt from eating too many of them. 🙂 I want chocolate, but I really need flowers instead. HA! And now for a cute picture.

Valentine-Day-MemesAhhhhhh!! Puggy!! I love this for so many reasons. If Nick got me a pug for Valentine’s Day, I would forget all about the chocolate. Maybe….

Looking ahead through the week, I’m teaching a lot of Jazzercise and have a normal running schedule. I’m not in true taper mode yet for the Little Rock race, so I’ll still have my normal runs on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Can you believe I’m 20 days out from my first marathon??? I can’t even wrap my head around that one right now.

I’m subbing Jazzercise tonight, so it’s going to be a busy evening. I hope you guys have a great one!