Week 8; off the gas

“You can’t hate the Beast and expect to beat it; the only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.”- Christopher McDougall, BORN TO RUN

Week 8 was the first week in a while with no new mileage amounts. 🥳🤩🤪🎉🎉💪💪For me, it was somewhat of a relief knowing that I wouldn’t have to push myself to a place I’ve never been. As a result, I was able to find contempt in my longer runs this week, and just really FEEL the run with some joy along with it. 🤍 It was almost like a week off, but not haha. I also finished my third book of the year, and it was FASCINATING. Recommended to me by Bobby, he read it a few years ago, and wow-it gave me a few things to think about for every run I’m on from here on out! It’s called BORN TO RUN by Christopher McDougall and it tells the story of human nature and why we truly are born to run…mind blown!!🤯 For anyone who has even the slightest interest or curiosity about running, you MUST read this book. I will definitely be reading it again, and probably will read it once a year to be honest. It also brought to life one my new favorite hydration beverage: Iskiate.

It’s extremely refreshing and unique, but something that I now crave a few times a week. It has many health benefits and in a way serves as natures energy drink. Here’s what you need:

-2 cups of water 💦

-2 Tablespoons of chia seeds

-The juice from 1/2 of a large lime 🍋

-1 Tablespoon of honey 🍯

Just mix it all together, stick it in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours and then enjoy! The chia seeds become gelatinous, so don’t be surprised if it feels like you’re drinking tadpoles or something hahaha, and you can add more honey if you like it on the sweeter side! 🙂 I’ve also found that if I have my chia drink within an hour or so before a run it has a positive impact…weather or not it actually does or if it’s all in my head I guess we’ll never know! 🤷🏻‍♀️

This week was a nice lil’ week. I was worried about Monday’s run considering I had just ran 6 miles for the first time ever a short two days prior. My body was definitely still recovering to say the least. I also came home from work and fell asleep on the couch so that really through me for a loop. At around 5:45pm, I asked Bobby if we should run or not and he said “let’s go !!”….soooo, at first I was a bit of a curmudgeon 🙄 about it, but it ended up to be a very pleasant 3.5 miles that evening. We ran a piece of the Cedar Lake Trail that is a total of like 13 miles or something, but it goes right behind our apartment so we thought we’d explore a bit! It was very nice, and after I loosened up at mile one things just felt nice. 😌

We spontaneously drove up north to the cabin on Tuesday after work since Bobby starts coaching track next week every day for the next few months-thought we’d have a little remote work escape while we still could!

Wednesday’s 4 mile moderate run turned into practice for Bobby starting his track coach career hahaha. JK. But, kind of. We did a few hill runs at the cabin and WOWZA does that make you feel like a big ole couch potato. I thought I was starting to get in shape with all this running, but running up a big hill a few times definitely didn’t validate my feeling of being in shape. OOFTA.

We decided to run our “long run” on Friday instead of Saturday because of the weather forecast-great call, too! Friday was a beautiful day and a nice 40ish degrees, which I think is my favorite running temp. It’s enough to not have a ton of layers, but not quite enough to ditch the long sleeve and I enjoy that layer. We tried a new trail that follows the main highway into town from the cabin for a change of scenery and it was so pretty! Even though it was “only” four miles on Friday, it still felt good to accomplish. It seems like as soon as I get halfway, no matter what the mileage is, I start to really fight my thoughts of wanting to just stop and walk. Thankfully, being in a new area always seems to help, and we were both in a good mood so our chit chatting helped pass the time as we plugged along.

We had a few nice woods walks scattered throughout the week and weekend, too! There’s nothing quite like fresh air and peacefulness!

No new recipes this week, but we did try something new from Trader Joe’s that we absolutely LOVED!!! Their frozen chocolate croissants. Holy cow, YUM. The picture does NOT do them justice, but if you have any ounce of love for breakfast pastries or chocolate, I’m telling you, these are a MUST on your next grocery run.

From here on out until race day, the mileage keeps amping up! Having this week of not being on the gas was so, so nice, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about the steady climb ahead. But, here we go!!🙌🏻😬💪

Have a great week! Spring is in the air!! 🌿💐

xoxo

Jos