Vacation... kinda

Sorry I've been away! I went on a family vacation (without my family). I was invited to go with my best friend and some of her family on a camping weekend. It was a blast! I don't have any pictures though, sad face. I kept forgetting to take them and when I would remember we would be doing something way away from my camera.

My best friend's family, or at least the part that came with us, are major alcoholics. Which calls for a great time. They get up at 8am and open a beer and then drink until the crack of dawn. I tried to keep up but I just can't stay awake that long. I tried a couple times to outlast some people but every time I went to bed, around 2-3 am, there was still at least five other people completely awake.

I'm still finding bug bites on me, last I counted I had 13.

On another subject, I went from being awesome at sticking to my training schedule to not exercising at all. I knew that I was going on this vaca thing and wasn't going to run so I ran everyday last week (nearly). Then I got back and haven't ran at all! I know! I keep telling myself I'm going to but just can't talk myself into it. If my sister was here I would be all over it but trying to motivate myself is not working. I'm going to try for tonight and see what happens.

I also signed up for 2 races in the next couple months. First is the Milestone 10K. They actually made this race specifically for people training for the Savannah Rock N Roll. It is half way though "training" and they have the 10K and a half so whether you are training for the full or the half you have a nice little run to test your training out on.

Then I also signed up for this Gladiator Rock and Run thing.

One of my friends is getting together a team and I decided to join. I did a Muddy Buddy earlier this year and thought it was fun so I figured I would give this a shot. I'm excited and can't wait for all the runninf packed fun I'm going to have!

oh, and I just realized that today is my year anniversary for getting out of the Navy!

New Shoes?

I've been seriously considering going to get my gait checked out. I've never really been a firm believer in needing this done because when I first started running I thought that I wasn't a serious enough runner to do it. Than after running my first half I decided that I had no issues with the shoes I have so obviously it is pointless cause I did fine in my none gait oriented shoes. Lately however I've been having some issues. Mainly blisters. The shoes I've been using are relatively new (as in less than 6 months) so I don't know why I would be getting blisters in them now. It is about time I start considering myself a runner.

I saw this in a postsecret I was looking through and it made me kinda sad.

Running a marathon is no joke (I wouldn't do it). It made me feel bad because doing something like that is amazing. Only 1% of people ever run a marathon and to be so upset about the way you look that you don't wanna share the joy of accomplishing it with people you know is saddening. I really hope that whoever wrote this is in a better place now and can share the story without feeling like people will judge them.

Plank you very much

I was supposed to get up Saturday morning and go running with my American Cancer Society group but, I slept through my alarm.  So I got up this morning (later than I wanted to because again, I slept through my alarm). I made it out to Lake Mayer anyways and started on my what was supposed to be 4 mile run. I don't know what was wrong but I was just not feeling it today. I ended up quitting before I even hit the 1.5 mile mark. I was kinda mad about it so convinced myself to finish 1.5 miles and as soon as I got that went on to convince myself to just go a head and do 2 miles. The last half a mile was not going well. I felt like I was running around 9:30 min/mile but according to my handy dandy Garmin was only going 10:40 min/mile. Which was disappointing because I normally run around 10:20 and I felt like I was going to die doing the 10:40. Oh well, not everyday can be an awesome run. I got out there and tried and that's all that matters. 

On to the important stuff... I bought this the other day...

If you haven't seen it I would recommend it. I'm a huge JenAn fan. It wasn't as funny as 21 Jump Street (if you haven't seen that one, rent it while you're at it), but it was still pretty funny. 

I also started reading this.

I like the movie so I thought I would give the book a try. I know, this is going to sound dumb but I'm going to say it anyways... I think I like the book better than the movie. Yup, I pointed out the obvious. You are welcome. The character Marcus is a lot more likable in the book, which I think makes the story more interesting. 

Back on to the good stuff aka my awesome workout routine. I was this article online the other day about a 6-week plank challenge. I thought, "hey I need to work on my core, I'm going to try it". So Starting today I'm going to be letting y'all into my awesome planking life (sorry Tebow fans, I don't think that counts as exercise). I changed up the rules a little because I didn't quit like what they had going but it's still the same concept. I started by holding a plank as long as I could. This is what I got.

I'm going to be doing 3 sets of planks everyday slowly increasing the seconds I hold until the end of the 6 weeks. At the end I'm going to hold a plank as long as I can and see if my time goes up at all. I'm hoping to get up to 2 minutes. That's my goal. Hopefully along with the extra seconds I'll also have a nicer stomach. I'll post some pictures later on of my abs fat so y'all can see the progress I make. 

Anyone ever try anything like this before? If so, how did it go?

Wish me luck!