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Exercise, Goals

July Goals

So June flew by quick and here we are already 5 days into July! I can’t believe we’re already halfway through a “new” year! I think time starts to pass by faster and faster the older I get and I don’t really know why.

Last month saw an up kick in physical fitness and more towards training though I’m not where I wish I was because of my chronic pain. Running is my weakest discipline and the one that I’ve done the least of because it causes the most problems with my back. The past week I’ve been dealing with issues in my left leg which is funny because my right leg is the one with the nerve issues.

My goals for July are primarily to get me ready for the Iron Girl which is on August 7th. It’s going to be a busy month because we head to Michigan for the whole last week of July for Brady’s final week of PT school and his graduation. I’m determined to reach at least my B goals for this race because I think at this point, it would be a miracle to hit my initial A goal.

July Goals

Get a consistent running pace close to or around 10:00 min/mi. Depending on how my body agrees, I’m hoping to reach this goal by the end of the month because if I run at a consistent pace, it usually averages to between 12:00-13:00 min/mi but when I do intervals, I can run 2-3 minutes or so at an 8:30/9:00 min/mi.
Focus on improving swim form and get closer to a consistent 2:00-2:10/100m pace. I think my best time doing 1,000m is just under 23:00 and I’d really like to get it closer to 20:00 for the race.
Hill climbing and overall body strength. I’ve been working on getting a collection of exercises to work out my full body but doesn’t overly strain my back like a lot of exercises can. I especially need to work on my leg strength because my muscular endurance was lacking during last year’s race even though my cardio was great. I’d really like to push up those hills better on the bike and running.
Drink more water. A few weeks ago, I was on a ride with my hubby on a 95 degree day in the early afternoon. I started to feel pretty sick and lightheaded and I knew right away it was because I hadn’t really had anything to drink the whole day and I was probably pretty dehydrated even though we’d only been out around 20-25 minutes. It took me a while before I felt OK to continue but it was a huge reminder that I need to more consistent with taking care of myself. So hydrate better!
Final goal for the month (lots of things to work on!) is eating better. I’ve probably been eating alright the last month, but I’d like to focus on better fueling for my body and give it food that nourishes rather than empty calories or foods that make me feel bloated or nauseous. So that means focusing on the basics! Lots of vegetable centered meals, whole grains, fruits, and things. It’s probably a good idea after this weekend seeing as how I over ate pretty much every meal! I love picnic food.

Race Goals

My A goal that I made at the beginning of the year was to finish the Iron Girl in under 2 hours. Kind of crazy considering that would take 45 minutes off of last year’s time, but it wasn’t unreachable. So my goal now is to beat 2:15 by as much as possible. Getting as close as I can to 2:00. Here are my general goal times:

Swim (1000m): 22:00
T1: 3:00
Bike (16 miles): 1:05:00
T2: 1:30
Run (3.4 miles): 35:00
Overall 2:11:30

We’ll have to see how training continues over the next few weeks, but I have high hopes and I’ll continue to push myself as much as I’m able.

So we had a very drizzly, dreary 4th of July over here but I suppose we were lucky because it didn’t start until later in the day. I joined my family for the parade in the morning in River Hill. There were lots of creative costumes and LOTS of candy. We were scrambling for all the tootsie pops and rolls that were being thrown out because those are the best! I got a couple Chil-Fil-A cards for a small treat so that will be a fun date 🙂

July 5, 2016 by meaganleanne

Recipes, Running, Swimming

Summer days and holding back when needed

Sometimes you have a plan but when your body says no, you have to listen. I had planned a run for this evening but my knee had been sort of bothering me through the whole day and I was nervous that if I went for a run, I would make it even worse and maybe even more serious. I interrupted the hubby while he was studying (he’s taking his NPTE board exam in less than 3 weeks!) and he did some tests to check it out and we’re figuring that my left IT band is really tight and it’s causing the pain in the knee. Or something like that. I don’t know all the fancy terms but generally that’s what’s up. It’s causing my knee to click every so many steps that I take and the more I’m standing on it, the more it hurts. This is a bit depressing but I’m hoping that with some heat/cold therapy, stretching, and rolling, it will be feeling better in the next couple of days.

I had lunch with my family at dad’s (and I suppose still technically mine) work in the cafeteria and then spent an hour at the mall with my sister. She’s obsessed with American Eagle and wanted to buy something with her birthday gift card. We also hit up Godiva for a post lunch treat. Shame on me 🙁 I’m not going to regret enjoying myself though, just the $6 dent in my shrinking wallet.

June 30, 2016 by meaganleanne

Life, Swimming, Training

Learning How To Swim: She’s finally had a swimming breakthrough!

Yesterday was a long but definitely fun-filled day. I spent most of the day hanging out with and catching up with one of my friends from college. I met Kelli my first week at Andrews University because she was my RA on the first floor freshman hall. Even though I moved to the 3rd floor on the opposite side of the building for my sophomore year, I got lucky and she was my RA that year as well! Over those 2 years we got to know each other pretty well and she was an amazing support while I was going through my mom’s illness and then her passing during the fall of my sophomore year. It’s been 2 years since the last time I saw her, and so when I found out that she was coming to town, I was grateful that I’ve been off work for a couple weeks so we could spend some time together. I think we ended up up chatting non-stop for almost 6 hours yesterday! We started by heading up to Columbia for brunch at Cafe Mezcla which, if you live in the area, is amazingly delicious! I think the service is a bit slow, but the food is worth it. I’ve been there a few times and I think I’ve always gotten the same thing because it’s just that good!

Cafe Mezcla Sunny days crepe and Nutella Freeze

I got a nutella freeze and a crepe that I think was called “Sunny Days”. It was a crepe filled with eggs, cheese, fresh baby spinach and tomatoes, and aioli. I don’t think I could choose which one was better because my taste buds were exploding with happiness from the deliciousness they were being bathed in. I’m generally trying to avoid dairy at the moment but I haven’t come here in a long time so this was too good to pass up!

June 29, 2016 by meaganleanne

Exercise, Food, Healthy eating, Running, Training

Welcome to My Life as Mrs!

Welcome to the new blog, My Life as Mrs! This new blog has been a long time coming. I had been trying for so long to think of a good name to represent me and I’d had a whole bunch of inspirational ideas for a name but the domain name was usually taken whether or not there was a blog attached to it. Well I finally figured that I wanted a name that would move along with me as my life changed and I really liked the idea of incorporating “Mrs” because being a wife is pretty much my favorite thing. I love my husband and all of our adventures! Since we’re in an extremely transitional period right now with him just about finishing with school, about to take his boards, and starting a new job, a lot of things are going to be changing over the next few months and now is a great time to start documenting our adventures in a more dedicated fashion.

I’m in full swing for triathlon training since my sprint tri is coming up in 6 weeks! It’s been slow going to get into it because of pain in my back that I’ve been dealing with lately, but things are going well all things considered so I’m going to be sharing more updates and details as they’re actually going on so I can have a better training log of this training cycle.

So let’s start with Sunday’s run!

I look like I’m falling asleep but the sun was right in my eyes! About 2 seconds after Brady took this photo, I realized that my shoelaces and my top were pretty much exactly the same color. Yay for color coordination! I haven’t been running a whole lot lately due to the aforementioned pain but when I have been, I’ve been running to push for speed because I really held back on that last year when I was training. However, when I run for a faster speed like in the 8:30-10:00 min/mi range, I usually don’t run for more than 3-5 minutes max in an interval. So for Sunday’s run, I really wanted to see where I was at if I focused on running for an amount of time instead of speed. I managed out a decent 20 minute run with no breaks at a 12:26 min/mi average pace. I was getting some nerve problems down through my right leg the last 3 minutes of running and I’ve been a bit sore in my quads and hamstrings today but I’m actually really satisfied with that run considering it hasn’t been a consistent endeavor lately.

June 28, 2016 by meaganleanne

Biking, Exercise, Weight loss

Biking on the BWI Trail Loop – Best Biking in Maryland

Sunday was a beautiful spring day. Probably the most perfect day you could ask for when going out for a ride. The trees were bright green from the budding new leaves, it was in the low-mid 60s, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I’ve been researching trails and parks within the Baltimore-Washington corridor for going on Sunday rides and the BWI trail loop stood out to me as one worth trying. It’s a good distance at 10.5-11 miles and I didn’t even know this trail existed until a few weeks ago.

Parking for the BWI trail

Getting there was slightly more complicated because I initially thought that 176 intersected with 195 but I didn’t realize until a little too late so we ended up driving around almost the entire airport before finding the parking lot we were aiming for. We arrived around 12:30 pm and the parking lot was crowded. All the spots were filled and there were at least a 1/2 dozen cars waiting for spots to open up. We 3-point turned out of there and went in search of another place to park.

Thomas A. Dixon Jr. Aircraft Observation Area Sign

We drove a less than half a mile down the road towards I-97 before noticing a dirt-patch parking area. This wasn’t a place listed on the websites I had read about but there were no signs prohibiting parking anywhere around the parking lot. It was obvious that at least 2-3 other cars had done the same thing because they had bike racks hanging off the back of the car. Another 1-2 cars were there from people parking to fish in the pond adjacent. So it turned out to be the most convenient alternative parking for the BWI Trail Loop.

BWI trail loop alternative parking — Yellow arrow points to the recommended parking at Thomas A. Dixon Observation Area. Pink arrow points to the dirt lot where we parked.

Directions and Views of BWI

We started our ride following the trail in the clockwise direction. I was expecting the loop to be more attached and in view of the airport and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t really at all. You have a few great spots to observe airport goings-on but the rest of the trail is along other roads and through some wooded areas.

April 26, 2016 by Meagan Leanne

Exercise, Food, Meal Planning, Weight loss

April Goals

I had a very small list of goals that I made mentally around the beginning of the year that would lead up to the end of March. I knew at this point, we would have been moved back to Maryland and the weather would be getting warm enough for me to be spending more time outside (which equals a happier me). I’ve slacked some over the last few weeks when it comes to doing any real dedicated exercise but I’ve managed a walks on most days and one swim.

Swimming:

I really wanted to get my 1000m (probably yards but well… it’s only a difference of 85…) swim time under 25 minutes by the time we moved back, which came a lot easier than I expected it to. I think my fastest 1000m so far has been 23 and as I get back into training, I’m expecting that to improve. Most of my swims have been in the 1200-1300m distance. I try to swim for at least 30 minutes whenever I go.

Over the next month, I want to keep working on that time by incorporating a couple of drills and doing more intervals which really push me! I’m aiming for 2 swim sessions a week. Also I want to do some outside work on strengthening my shoulders and arm muscles. I’ll try and share the different exercises I like to do for those in a future post.

April 1, 2016 by Meagan Leanne

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