So remember that one time when I registered for a half marathon? Have no fear, folks, it’s still on. There has, however, been a little glitch in the training for said half marathon. This glitch is known as plantar fasciitis.

That’s right, for the past five weeks I have been down for the count when it comes to running….and walking….pretty much any kind of weight bearing activity.

As you can probably imagine, this has greatly impacted my training schedule. Last week was the first week that my foot felt like it could be used again in a normal fashion. I am happy to announce that I am running free of pain once again.

Battling any kind of injury is hard. Battling an injury while in the midst of training for something can be especially devasting. So what’s a gal (or guy) to do when something like that happens? 

1.) Well first off, try not to fret too much. Eh hem, Lebron, get it together dude. It’s gonna be okay.

2.)  Follow the R.I.C.E. method:

In case you need a picture play-by-play….

        A.) REST

        B.) ICE

        C.) COMPRESSION

          D.) ELEVATION

3.) I know some people aren’t keen on medicating certain things, but I’m an advocate taking anti-inflamatories to limit the swelling, as long as the directions for taking the medication are followed correctly. So what type of med’s are the best?

No, no, no…I’m not talking about THAT kind of medication….although that would work to superficially lessen the pain. The best med’s are Advil (ibuprofen) or Aleve (Naproxen). 

Following the R.I.C.E. method is the first form of treatment that any physician would recommend. Most of the time this form of treatment works, but there are instances where more medical attention is necessary, e.g, surgery.

The important thing is to give yourself adequate time to heal. The human body is amazing and you’d be surprised what it can do if you just let it do it’s thang.

All in all, it sucks that this injury happened right when I was supposed to begin training for my half. All I can do is suck it up and be extra diligent with my training going forward. Being physically able to perform is essential to most sports, but I feel like the mental component is half the battle when it comes to running especially. That’s what I’m going to be focusing on during the remainder of my training. Hopefully by the end of my training and after the race, this is what I’ll be like…

….except it will have my face….and not a man’s body…?? You get what I’m saying….

I’ll spare you the boring details of my professional life, but I’ll give you all a quick recap of what went on this month.

1.) Annual cousin float trip

2.) Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

3.) A dear friend’s wedding

4.) My college roommate visiting after having been separated for 6 years!!!

6.) Annndd this:

and this:

and this:

and now this:

I’m obsessed. Someone  SERIOUSLY come dump a bucket of ice on my face and pry these books out of my (now freezing cold – because of the ice) fingers. This is book ONE of TEN. I’ve read three in two days. I told you – I have a problem. I haven’t slept, I’ve barely eaten, and all I can think about all day long at work is “Wow, Merit’s such a badass”, “I really love the character development in these books”, “Will Ethan and Merit get together, or won’t they?” SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!!!!! AHH!!

Okay, in all real seriousness though, these books are super good. Most urban romance/fantasy books can be a little hard for me to stomach – but this series is so different. I actually really like Merit and don’t want to punch her in the “I’m a damsel in distress and can’t think for myself” face.

Anywho, this weekend isn’t full of much. Ryan is out of town fishing (or as I like to call it – his “man-cation”) so Riley and I get the house all to ourselves all weekend. Tomorrow entails some serious pool-time (it’s been CRAZY hot here in the Lou lately – 108 degrees yesterday), and a sushi/Magic Mike girls night out tomorrow night. If there’s anything more that I love than laying out by a pool all day and reading/relaxing, it’s eating sushi and watching half naked men on a gigantic screen with some of my besties.

Have a great weekend!

My co-worker has one of those Dilbert comic calendars on her desk, and everyday I stroll over and see what the comic for that day says. May was chalk full of beauties. Here are some of my favs:

Tell me that isn’t the truth…

I laughed so hard, I cried when I read that one.

Every office has at least one uber creepy male or female co-worker…

No pens for you!! (Said in my best “soup nazi” accent!)

Anyone who works in an office can relate, in some part, to almost all of those comic strips. I hope you enjoyed those as much as I did!!

OMG SO EXCITED CAN’T WAIT TO GET OUT AND RUN TONIGHT I LOVE RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you know why? Because it’s National Running Day!!!! Yippee!! A day for celebrating one of my most favorite things in the world! So get outta bed, lace up your shoes and GETCHA RUN ON!!

See you tonight with my NYC: Day Two recap and pics! Happy Running!

First off, I don’t think I mentioned this in any of the posts leading up to my trip, but the reason I went up to NYC was for my cousin’s wedding. She lives in Manhattan, so naturally, it made sense to have the wedding where she lives, where her and her fiancé (now husband!) met, and in a city that she loves so dearly. I, personally, am very happy she had it there because it gave me an excuse to go up there!  Thanks, Jen! Love you!

Our flight was at 8:20 a.m. on Friday morning, so we had to get up pretty early to get to the airport. Needless to say, I was a little tired. I really don’t like flying. It’s not that I mind actually flying, it’s the whole waiting aspect that inevitably goes along with it…what a hassle. However, I would take sitting in an airport for a couple of hours and getting to my destination faster than sitting in a car for 18 hours. No thank you.

We flew into LaGuardia which is in Queens and waited for our shuttle to pick us up to take us to our hotel.

**Side note: If you ever go to NYC and get in any kind of vehicle, be prepared to be scared. Very, very scared. I thought I was going to die multiple times. Just saying. But for as crowded and congested as the roads are there, and as much as people don’t follow traffic laws, traffic moves remarkably well. No one really obeys any laws (FORGET about people using their blinker!), but everyone just kind of “exists” together and somehow, it works.**

We stayed in Midtown at Hotel Pennsylvania. It was an excellent location, but the hotel itself was just “meh”. It actually kinda freaked me out. The night before I left I read an article about a crazy bed bug epidemic that is sweeping the nation. Yeah, BED BUGS! Oh HELL no! I don’t do bugs…and ESPECIALLY bugs that bite. No, no, no. So of course, as soon as we checked into our room, I immediately made Ryan put our luggage in the bathroom while I proceeded to check the headboard, base boards, the mattress, the sheets, and all the other furniture. I’m one of those people who will clean their hotel bathroom and spray things with Lysol before I even take my shoes off and walk around. *NERD ALERT!* (Or maybe a germaphobe?) Anyway…long story short, no bed bugs. Thank you sweet baby Jesus!

We arrived in NYC around lunch time, so we all decided to step out and find somewhere to eat. We ended up eating at The Local, which was only a block from our hotel. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures from much of the first day. Sorry again. *Blogger fail* The food was okay but the services was dreadful. It really gave us a bad impression and we were all hoping that the rest of our stay wouldn’t be so cumbersome. Luckily, that was the only bad thing that happened while we were there! Everywhere and everyone else we met were delightful! Success!

After we ate, we decided to walk around for a bit. Our hotel was at 7th and 34th, which is right across the street from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. It is also only about 10 (guesstimate) blocks away from Times Square so we decided we should definitely venture that way and check out everything!

From left to right: my younger brother Jake, Ryan, and my daddy-o.

This was on the way. I have no idea who this is supposed to be. All I know is that we were in the Fashion District, so it makes sense that the man is sewing something.

We kept walking and ended up smack dab in the middle of Times Square! Times Square is an awesome place. Soooooooo crowded though!!! If you’re not a “people person”, or get anxious in large crowds, you might want to forego it. Also, just a little side note, no one that you see in Times Square is actually from New York – it is saturated with tourists. So if you’re thinking you’re going to see a New Yorker in their natural habitat, you most likely won’t.

After walking around all afternoon, we were pretty hungry for dinner. We decided to eat at a little Irish pub called Langdan’s. I had a steak sandwich and a side salad. It was the BEST sandwich EVER!!!!!!!!! I also had a delicious micro beer. It was a light beer and had a hint of sweetness…I think it was apricot? Either way, it was awesome.

We all sat and chatted over dinner and before we knew it, it was 11:00 p.m. We were all exhausted from a day of traveling and walking around. My feet were HURTING! We walked back to our hotel and called it a night. I was so excited for what was in store for the other three days! See you tomorrow with NYC: Day Two recap!

Hello, friends! I just wanted to pop in and let you know that I didn’t drop off the face of the earth. I had a wonderful trip! I will give you all the details with pics tonight! Have a great day!

I’m so excited to be going to NYC, but thought I’d check-in and do a little blogging before jetting off. I probably won’t be posting while I’m out of town, but rest assured dear friends, I’ll have plenty of pics from my travels. No worries!

Today though, I’d like to talk to you about one of my favorite methods of training: HIIT!

No, not that kind of hit, the other kind.

I’m sure most of you know what this is, or have at least heard of it. If not, here is a little run down of what HIIT training is all about!

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), also called High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise (HIIE) or sprint interval training, is an enhanced form of interval training, an exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is a form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 9–20 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning.

I LOVE me some HIIT workouts! My HIIT workouts run around 20 minutes long. This is a cardio-driven workout routine, but don’t think you’re limited to just the treadmill if you want to do one! I also enjoy doing HIIT routines on the bikes and elliptical’s in the gym.

Below is an example of what a typical HIIT routine will look like with respect to the level of intensity and duration:

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

(Source)

These workouts are short, but man-oh-man are they effective! I usually combine my HIIT days with my strength training days.

Another slightly different approach to the traditional HIIT routine is the Tabata method. Commonly called “the single most effective type of high intensity interval training”, Tabata uses 20 seconds of super-intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. This cycle is repeated 8 times for a duration of four minutes. Yeah you read that right, FOUR MINUTES AND YOU’RE DONE! Don’t be fooled by the short duration though, this method will totally kick your butt and leave you in a pool of tears sweat on the floor.

The secret to making this type of training effective though, it to go all out in those intense phases. You’ve GOT to push yourself! No pain, no gain! Remember, exercise isn’t supposed to be comfortable. If it were, everyone would do it, and we know not everyone does.

Tabata is especially useful with weights. Kettlebells, for example, are great tools to use during your tabata routine. Other exercises such as front squats or the push press are good too! Case in point, just be sure to use something that will work your biggest muscle groups, otherwise you won’t see that much benefit.

Finally, make sure that you allow your body adequate rest after you do a HIIT or Tabata routine. If you can do these routines everyday (especially the Tabata), you’re not doing them correctly.

I hope after you’ve read this post, you will share the same sentiments as my little friend here.

Eating this:

Listening to this:

and doing this:

Before going here:

To do this:

aaaannnnddd this:

LOL, there are no words. Things got cray, cray.

Anywho- onto DAY TWO!

On Saturday, Jason, Ryan, and their parents all went out on a guided fishing excursion in celebration of Jay, Ry, and Kent’s birthday’s. While they were out fishing all morning, Amy and I took the kids into Eureka Springs for brunch and a little sight seeing. (And maybe to let the kids wear off some of their energy )

I absolutely ADORE Eureka Springs, AR. It is honestly one of the coolest and weirdest places I’ve ever been. It’s kind of a paradox actually.The architecture screams nineteenth and early twentieth century, but the shops and locals are a throw-back to the 1960’s. It’s really funny and I love it.

It has such a rich history as a place where only the most wealthy in society would go for health and relaxation purposes. As the name would suggest, there are so.many.springs. Natural, cool, springs that were believed to have healing powers. People would travel across the country from cities in order to be near the healing waters. Whether they actually work or not, I don’t know, but I’d like to believe there is a little magic in this world.

Amy and I went to a local restaurant called Local Flavors. I love going to that place. The food is super yummy and they have some delicious mimosa’s and bloody mary’s. I was in the mood for a burger, so I ordered one with a sliced avocado on top. YUM!! Riley had a delicious all-natural peanut butter, honey, and banana sandwich with sliced pears. He loved it – especially the pears!

After we were all fed, we decided to walk around the town and sightsee.

We also had to make a mandatory stop at the ice cream shack for some froyo.

It was delicious!

LOL- Humpty Dumpty….sitting on a wall (let’s hope he doesn’t have a great fall ). I’m tellin’ ya, this town is special.

We only stayed for a little while, because we had something to do that was super duper important, so we headed home.

We had been promising the kids all morning long that we would take them out on the boat. It was too cold to get in the lake, but perfect weather for a boat ride!

As awkward as that picture looks, trust me, it was way worse before I took this.

The kids were pretty tired after getting up early and being out on the boat, so Kent and Peggy took them back home to get them some dinner. Meanwhile, the rest of us went back out with the fishing boat to do a little early evening fishing. I got a couple bites, but didn’t catch anything. It was still a lot of fun though and incredibly relaxing to be out on the water at that time of day.

I haven’t been in a fishing boat like that before and almost fell into the water a couple times, but it was still fun. Luckily, I can swim. Regardless, the lake was so beautiful.

Gorgeous. Unfortunately, Sunday came all too soon and we had to leave. It was sad, but I’m excited for when we can go back in August.