Jogging My Memory

The past week has been an absolute whirlwind.

Last Friday night I flew from Sacramento to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I had a layover in Minneapolis at about 7am and stopped and grabbed this egg white and cheddar whole wheat bagel sandwich from Einstein.

What is about the combo of eggs, cheese, and bagel that is just irresistible? Am I the only one with this problem?

When I arrived at 9:30 am in Grand Rapids, Tyler and his brother, also a groomsmen, picked me up from the airport and then drove me to my parents house.

Lunch that day was some Progresso Soup (with hot sauce) and a wasa cracker.

I worked on my law review article and ate some snacks including pretzel cheese sandwiches and M & M’s.

My mom made some kebabs for dinner, she also had sushi that I ate a few pieces of.

And the star of the show was definitely the lemon-meringue pie that my little sister made from scratch, crust and all! I may have had two pieces…

It was AMAZING!

I won’t give you a play by play of all my eats from Sunday on but here are some of the highlights:

As for exercise, I have been holding pretty steady on my marathon training.

Sunday I was lucky enough to be accompanied for twelve humid miles by my mom and dad on bikes! My dad led the way, and took us up and down some major hills. I’m proud to say I didn’t stop, I even kept running while I was drinking water. It took us about an hour and 55 minutes. We spent the rest of the morning attending church, the same church where Tyler and I will be married on Saturday.

Monday my mom and I went to a class at the local YMCA where we have a family membership. The class was called Power Flex and was very similar to Body Pump type classes with weight training and some cardio thrown in. This class was no joke – my mom has me beat in the strength department!

Both Tuesday and today my mom and I attended a gentle yoga class at the YMCA – it was just what we needed to relieve some of the stress of last minute wedding planning.

Wednesday I ran approximately 5 mile in 45 minutes. The humidity really gets to me after living in the dessert for a year, and it definitely slows me down a bit, as do the hills around my parents house – we are in the Lake Michigan dunes.

Now a recap of today…

Before yoga I met up with Tyler after he picked up his tux nearby to get a flashdrive with some pictures from him. Yoga was amazing! We did a one nostril breathing exercise that was really interesting and definitely very calming.

After yoga this morning, we came home and ate breakfast. I had an english muffin with two “fried” egg whites.

Between breakfast and lunch I worked on finalizing the table arrangements, vacuumed, moved around some of my stuff for when my other siblings get here, and put the finishing touches on the programs that my sister and I spent hours tying ribbons on last night. Thanks Diana!

Lunch was Oikos vanilla, Cracklin Oat Bran (love this stuff!), and strawberries!

Lunch was followed by showering and then running lots of errands. One of my errands was going downtown to my old favorite running store, Gazelle in Holland, and getting a new pair of running shoes. I stuck with a tried and true favorite and got the Brooks Adrenaline 10.

They feel like slippers and I can’t wait to run in them after I break them in a little! Thanks Mom and Dad for supporting my running habit/addiction

Later we stopped at Hobby Lobby and then at the bridal salon to pick up my dress. I’m staying tight-lipped about the dress, don’t want Tyler getting any hints, and don’t worry you’ll see it in a few days.

Dinner was some Lake Michigan salmon, half a corn cob, and 3 small pieces of Vienna Bread with Brummel and Brown.

And pickles – I love pickles!

And since I am definitely a night-time snacker, I had some Honey Mustard pretzel twists and Shockers for a snack.

Sorry the camera ate the picture of the pretzels

Tomorrow is going to be busy but so good!

My maid of honor Elise arrives and we’ll be getting our nails done. I’ll also be finishing up the table markers, and Tyler and I will be picking up our marriage license! Then it’s time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I can’t wait to see Tyler for more than a few minutes and to get to see my brothers and sister in law!

Have a great day tomorrow! I’ll blog after the rehearsal dinner if I have time – I can’t wait to show you the food!

Yep friends we have hit the single digits – 9 days until the wedding!

I’m beyond excited, but also beyond stressed.

Between wedding planning, moving, marathon training, working at the Capitol, writing for law review, and living 2000 miles away from my fiance and family I’m feeling a little like this:

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/images/198390/5_22_033106_mckinney.jpg

No seriously.

Fortunately, I’m going out tonight to meet up with these two:

I’m sure they’ll bring a little sanity back into my life – love them!

I’m out!

Yep you heard that right 18.5 miles. Now let me clarify.

I woke up this morning and headed to Fleet Feet Sacramento to join their Sunday morning fun run group. I ended up running with another two people who were running 16 miles this week. I stayed with them for the first 50 minutes, then turned around and ran back to the store. I had heard that the route that I did was 12 miles, but when I clocked it at home it came up way short of 12 – try right around 11 – oh well

I ran my 11 miles in 1:40.

The best part of the run this morning was getting to meet some new people. I met people who live very close to the apartment Tyler and I want so badly, and another woman my age who is running the Nike Women’s Marathon in October as well. I love making new friends!

When I got home I showered and then promptly got right back in my bed at 11 in the morning. I was brought back to reality by a phone call from Tyler and decided it was time for some food.  The only thing that sounded good was pizza, so I made myself a homemade pizza with Whole Foods Whole Wheat Pizza Crust, Trader Giotto’s Pizza Sauce, Part-skim Mozzarella, and diced green peppers.

I managed to demolish half of it for lunch – hey I was hungry! (This was the first serving – I had this x 2).

During the afternoon I worked on my second law review article. While I worked I had some snacks (did I mention being hungry) – oranges and then a few too many serving of animal crackers.

Once I finally finished the second draft of my article, which is heinously boring and will never be read by a single soul, seriously, I had another 2 slices of pizza, that I didn’t take a picture of.

Then I decided to go for a long walk. I drove to the park that is a block away from the apartment of my dreams and walked while talking to Elise and then Tyler on the phone. I did 10 laps around the park  (which is 3/4 mile around) for a total of 7.5 miles in around 2 hours. I stretched then drove home.

When I got home I had the second half of my dinner which resulted in this

Yep, I ate an entire pizza in one day. I don’t know whether to be proud or embarrassed, so I’ll stick with proud At least, it was a healthy pizza.

And to finish off the night I had a little post dinner snack of SweeTarts and pretzels.

Holy carbohydrates batman! I definitely did my fair share of eating and exercising today (between the run and walk about 3:40).

Tomorrow morning I hope to find out about the dream apartment – I’m sure you’ll be grateful if I do, so that I can stop talking about it.

It’s going to be a busy week between law review assignments, my internship, beginning to pack up the apartment, and packing to leave on Friday to go to Michigan. Wish me luck…or maybe sanity! Have a great week!

Are you curious yet? Maybe, just a little…good! Well you’ll probably just scroll to the end now, but to keep the suspense going, I’ll post some of the latest eats.

Friday started off really well – I ran a strong 5.5 miles in 47:30. It was a great run!

Breakfast was a Trader Joe’s Bran Muffin at work, and lunch was carrots and hummus eaten in the car on the way to two more apartment viewings.

Tyler and I have actually already been approved for one apartment. It has a few issues and we want to make sure we get the best that we can, so I’m continuing to view apartments – I saw another this afternoon that we may apply for just in case. I’m happy to report the first viewing yesterday was a HUGE success! It’s actually only about 4 houses down from the apartment we are approved for, but it has a few things that make it a little better than the first, such as more space, wood floors, a bigger and nicer bathroom, and a place to put our bikes and bike rack.

We turned in the applications on Friday and hope to hear back on Monday – keep your fingers crossed guys, we really want this apartment! I spent most of the afternoon and early evening running around doing apartment stuff and was famished by the time I got home. So I had this little combo for an early dinner – polenta cooked with 2 Laughing Cow Wedges, and some Mango Key Lime Salsa! It was delish!

Of course I was hungry again at 8, so an Amy’s Burrito made an appearance – shocking I know  I also had 2 oranges for dessert, and there was a smoothie in there sometime but it went unpictured.

Now Saturday, I woke up and did a little morning strength training:

4 sets of 12 each: bicep curls, shoulder press, bent over dumbbell row, tricep extensions, modified push ups

4 sets of hip girdle leg lift exercises

4 sets of 25 each: crunches and one leg bridges

I had an early lunch of…you guessed it an Amy’s Burrito – the last actually, which is probably a good thing.

After an apartment viewing and running an errand (Target!) I came home and had some carrots and hummus for a snack.

Tyler and I spent the afternoon working on wedding items – like booking a limousine service and talking about plans for our (hopefully) new apartment.

Around 5 I had an early dinner a similar combo to last night, only this time polenta, one Laughing Cow wedge, and some Trader Joe’s marinara sauce!

I mixed it all together before I ate it – it was pretty yummy and I’ll be making it again.

My evening snack/late dinner was pretzels, animal crackers, and sweetarts in an effort to carb load while watching Bride Wars!

Now what am I carb loading for you might ask (well ok I’m not really carb loading, I just like to eat snacks while I watch movies ok)? Well this morning (in about 45 minutes) I’ll be running 11 miles.

And why am I running 11 miles?

Because I am training for this!

Source: http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikerunning_events-en_US/?tags=nike_womens_marathon_2010+race_weekend&tagOperator=AND

When I found out my best friend and Maid of Honor Elise was moving out to California for grad school I couldn’t help but think of all the fun possibilities. Elise and I chatted about our running and eventually decided that we would enter the random drawing with a running group I am a member of (I use the term member loosely as I have never really done anything with them…oops).

Well I was shocked and excited when I discovered one evening that a substantial portion of money, that happened to be the same amount as the registration for the Nike Women’s Marathon, had disappeared from my account! I texted Elise and she later confirmed that the same thing had happened to her. And with that we were officially registered for the Nike Women’s 2010 Marathon!

Now not only will I be running my first marathon with one of my besties, I’ll also be running my first marathon on my 24th birthday! Yep, October 17, 2010, the day of the Nike Women’s is also my 24th birthday! I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate!

So in October, Tyler, Elise, and I will be venturing to San Francisco. We have a hotel booked and are already planning where we will eat dinner the day before. I could not be more excited!

As for training – I have been loosely following Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 Marathon Training Plan. However I started 16 weeks out instead of 18, so I started on week 16 (sort of). Last week’s 10+ miler was the first official training run. I’m hoping to put together more of a plan after the wedding and move (when I have more time) and include some speed training.

As for timing, I’m not sure what my goal times are yet for the marathon, I hope to get a better idea of that when I start increasing my mileage more.

Well I’m so glad to finally announce that on the blog – its been hard not to mention it for the past few months! So you can expect to hear a lot about it now

I hope you had a fantastic weekend and I’ll be back later today with my eats after 11 miles!