Walt Wednesday

Some people do a "Wordless Wednesday" post, where they simply share a photo or image, but I thought I'd make a little series out of my Wednesdays. And since I love alliteration so much, why not go with Walt Wednesdays (obviously everyone can use a little break from the seriousness, scariness and sassiness of life - and what better way to help put a smile on your face than with a cute wiener dog picture, am I right?!)... So, without further ado...

WALT WEDNESDAY!

When life gets overwhelming, how do you de-stress?

Workout Recap - Week 24

Sunday, June 7th – Rest Day, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Monday, June 8th – 150 minutes on the stationary bike, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Tuesday, June 9th – 75 minutes on the stationary bike

Wednesday, June 10th – 90 minutes on the stationary bike, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Thursday, June 11th – 90 minutes on the stationary bike

Friday, June 12th – Rest Day

Saturday, June 13th – Rest Day

Well, let's just say the ankle didn't heal in the first week, so I have had to put running on the back burner. Thankfully I have been able to ride my stationary bike without feeling any additional pain, so at least I am keeping the legs moving even if I'm not running. The hubby, pup and I were camping in Mammoth from Thursday evening until Monday afternoon, hence why there was no biking (we did some short hikes and campground cruising, but nothing I would consider as a workout per-say). At least this injury came when I didn't have any races on the calendar to train for... It could have been worse. PS If the ankle doesn't feel better by mid-week I will be making an appointment to confirm there isn't some sort of fracture...

How were your workouts this past week?

Walt Wednesday

Some people do a "Wordless Wednesday" post, where they simply share a photo or image, but I thought I'd make a little series out of my Wednesdays. And since I love alliteration so much, why not go with Walt Wednesdays (obviously everyone can use a little break from the seriousness, scariness and sassiness of life - and what better way to help put a smile on your face than with a cute wiener dog picture, am I right?!)... So, without further ado...

WALT WEDNESDAY!

When life gets overwhelming, how do you de-stress?

Workout Recap - Week 23

Sunday, May 31st – 90 minutes on the stationary bike, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Monday, June 1st – 45 minute yoga class

Tuesday, June 2nd – 21 mile run, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Wednesday, June 3rd – 8.46 mile run

Thursday, June 4th – 6.35 mile run, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Friday, June 5th – 8.46 mile run, Foam Rolled and Stretched

Saturday, June 6th – 18.88 mile hike/ run with the hubby

Oh golly gee, I didn't want to post this because I didn't want to acknowledge it, but about 3 miles from the end of our hike yesterday I rolled my ankle... and BAD! A rock I was standing on shifted and when I jumped off of it, I landed on the outside of my left foot, stepping down with all of my weight. I was able to make it back to the car (thanks to adrenaline and a stubborn attitude), but it swelled to about twice its normal size and is pretty bruised. I am hoping it is "just" a rolled ankle, but seems like for the next couple days I'll be pretty laid up... so rest, ice, compression and elevation it is.

How were your workouts this past week?

Walt Wednesday

Some people do a "Wordless Wednesday" post, where they simply share a photo or image, but I thought I'd make a little series out of my Wednesdays. And since I love alliteration so much, why not go with Walt Wednesdays (obviously everyone can use a little break from the seriousness, scariness and sassiness of life - and what better way to help put a smile on your face than with a cute wiener dog picture, am I right?!)... So, without further ado...

WALT WEDNESDAY!

When life gets overwhelming, how do you de-stress?

McDot Baker's Dozen

With all of the heaviness going around these past few weeks, the hubby and I decided we needed a "sweet" release. We watched a few Run Steep Get High challenges via YouTube recently and thought we would try and attempt a food running challenge of our own.... which is where the idea for Saturday morning's McDot Baker's Dozen came from.

It started with me reaching out to one of our local bakeries (Doughside is our FAVORITE because they're handmade and VEGAN) to see if they'd be willing to make us some donut holes for the challenge. They are still a start-up and don't technically have a storefront, but they were beyond amazing to work with and HOOKED IT UP! {Just in case you care, we paid for all of the deliciousness - we figured we were using our "race registration fees" to support local businesses.}

Love supporting local businesses (especially vegan ones!)!

The idea was we'd each eat a donut hole every mile for the length of a half marathon (13 donut holes each, hence the "baker's dozen"). Let's just say when we picked up the delicious treats "ish" got real... THE HOLES WERE HUGE!

Like I mentioned in the video, the hubby saw the size and wanted to grab his hydration vest to carry them in. I figured I'd just carry them in my hand (inside of a Ziploc bag, of course) so it would be easier to get to them throughout the run. (Spoiler alert: The hubby's holes turned into a giant gooey mess by mile 3 because they were getting warm from his back and then he was shoving them in and out of his vest. Thankfully it didn't impact the flavor at all ;))

These might be the biggest donut holes I've ever seen...

We drove down to Carlsbad for the run (since the shelter in place order I have only been running from the house, but the hubby really likes this route along the coast, so since he was willing to tackle this challenge with me, I decided I would do the location of his choosing) and got ready. We snapped a few pictures before we got ready to pound the pavement. 

Excited to get the challenge started!

Thought a bag would be easier to transport them in than the box they came in...

A little #RealTalk... I signed up for the East Coast vs West Coast 50K Challenge for the month of May. I ran my 50K distance on May 8th (in honor of my dad and Ahmaud Arbery) and recorded a decent time - 4:37:43. Since I ran my "race" early in the month, I kept seeing females run faster times and bump me down in the rankings. This virtual run allows you to run the distance as many times as you would like to try and better your time. This past week I kept going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to run the 31 miles again to attempt to take off a few minutes. The humidity has been pretty nasty (I don't think it has gotten below 90% in the past two or three weeks), which tends to zap my energy, not to mention there was no guarantee that if I ran the 31 miles again I'd run it faster than I did earlier in the month (or that other runners wouldn't submit faster times anyway). I decided that I wanted to KEEP RUNNING FUN instead of putting all of this self-imposed pressure on myself and that's when I posed the idea of this challenge to the hubby. I figured if he was in, I wouldn't attempt the 50K again, but if he didn't want to do the donut hole challenge then I'd give the 31 miles a second go. Let's just say he was MADE for food challenges, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself and spoil the ending ;)

I'll be honest, the first three miles were a breeze... so much so that I naively thought to myself, "I may have made this challenge too easy... I know some people do full donuts, but we couldn't have done full Doughside donuts, right?!"

Hole number 3 (the views weren't too shabby either)

Well, as I'm sure you probably could've guessed, the good feelings didn't last long, and by mile 4 or 5 the struggle was real... I'm not sure if it's because I have a smaller stomach compared to the hubby or because he has been "training" (he has a HUGE sweet tooth and can pound three or four donuts in one sitting without batting an eye whereas I don't tend of eat as many sweet treats as he does), but man, I felt like this was a challenge for me for legit miles 6-13.1. Thankfully where we were running had plenty of port-o-potties because I definitely had to duck into a couple along the way. (I joked with Ryan and asked him if I threw-up, if that would be a disqualification... thankfully it never came down to that!)

After I took that video I felt like I could just "walk it in". It seemed like I would eat my donut hole and then need to walk a half mile or so to get it to settle down. By the time I was "ready" to run again it was time to eat the new hole. I'm going to "blame" the size of the donut holes, hehe, but really I think I'm just not built for the challenges like the hubby is!

Just as stoked to eat donut hole #13 as he was to eat the first!

I definitely walked the last two or so miles (with a potty break mixed in for good measure because although they were still super yummy, my tummy was not sure how to react to the overload of sweet... just for reference, I ran the half marathon distance the day before with ZERO fuel and finished in under 1:50... this run would end up taking 50 minutes longer AND include a gallon freezer bag of sugar ;)) and during that time the hubby was literally running laps around me. (He finished with a half mile more than me because he would jog ahead and then back to meet up with me. Like I said - ROCKSTAR!)

You know you're a runner when you are thankful for port-o-potties, hehe!

I may have had to start my last hole a little before I hit mile 13 so I would be able to get it all down before my watch read 13.1.

Towards the end of the run challenge I was slightly nervous the donut holes would make an encore appearance, but I thankfully was able to keep them all down. This challenge was NO JOKE and apparently I needed a bit more training.

The struggle was real! 

In the end it took us two hours and forty minutes to finish 13.1 miles (well, the hubby did 13.6) and thirteen HUGE donut holes. We had quite a few folks comment about our shenanigans and ask us about the donuts. I'm not sure if they were laughing AT us or WITH us, but, hey, at least it brought some extra smiles to people's faces ;)

This #CarleesTreasure I found earlier in the week worked out PERFECTLY for my watch shot!

You can see at the beginning of the run we would do one quick walk break once we hit the mile marker to eat the donut...
 then the wheels started to fall off, the pace went out the window and it was all about surviving and not throwing up ;)

By the time we got to the car we were NOT in the mood to eat celebratory donuts (they melted in the car - oops! I'm sure it won't impact the deliciousness, but they definitely aren't as "instagrammable" any more). Thankfully this challenge didn't cause either of us to ward off donuts... we just needed to wait a few hours before we could enjoy them again ;)

Our celebratory donuts would have to wait until Sunday morning's breakfast.

PS Did you know Friday is National Doughnut (or Donut) Day?! You don't have to tackle this challenge (although I would totally suggest you give it a try), but you should mark your calendar so you can enjoy a delicious donut or twelve.

Have you ever tried a food challenge?

May Books

I can't believe my goal of reading 17 books in 2017 (ha, I ended up with 88 in 2017, 77 in 2018 and 67 in 2019!) has morphed into this passion for books. As you can see, my reading has slowed a bit, but my love for books has not! In the past couple years I've added longer distance races (which means more time running/ training and less time reading), we've remodeled our condo (I think it legit took us six months to finish the whole thing... DIY seems to take twice as long {and cost twice as much} as you originally think it will), and I've added another part time job (which means I'm now working 40ish hours a week, cutting down on my reading time). Even still, I love getting my read on whenever I can.

Truth be told, I was never much of a reader when I was younger (CliffsNotes were my best friend when it came to books), but recently I fell in love. Although I may not read at the same speed as I previously did when I first caught the reading bug, I still want to keep the hobby going (and what better form of accountability than to post a list of the books I finished at the end of the month?!). I don't have any set number of books I am shooting to read this year, but hopefully a lack of goal doesn't mean a lack of books completed. So, without further ado, let's jump into everything I read in May!

• Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly - Normally I try and read the book before I watch the movie (because, let's be real, the book is always better {at least 99% of the time}), but this is one that I saw the film prior to picking up the book. In fact, although this movie was based on real life, I didn't really realize there was a book in the first place. I came across the book in our neighborhood free library and knew I wanted to read it. I was still in the middle of my unemployment stint when I grabbed this book, so I was able to devote as much time to reading it as I wanted. It did take me a little longer than I was expecting (I was having a hard time keeping some of the characters straight because the author would switch between them for long stretches and I'd have to remember who exactly everyone was), but the story is absolutely amazing. In case you didn't know, I thought I was going to be a math major when I went to college (eventually I decided on economics instead), so maybe a little of why I love this story so much. Women (and girls) stereotypically aren't supposed to be good at math... BUT WE CAN BE! And to see the hidden work of so many amazing African American women to help PUT A MAN ON THE MOON - I mean, YOU GO GIRLS! It has been a while since I saw the movie, but I do really remember enjoying it. Maybe this is one where the film does stack up against the book... maybe ;) I guess I'll have to rewatch it soon to see if it's the case. If you don't know the "untold story of the black women Mathematicians who helped win the space race", then I urge you to find out about these strong, courageous and insanely intelligent women! I would give it an 8 out of 10 (although I'd give the story itself an 11 out of 10).

• I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai - Yet another book I grabbed from our neighborhood library and read while I was laying in the sun at our garage (due to COVID our pool is closed, so if I want to soak up some rays I have to bust out my beach chair and sit in front of our garage, haha). I had obviously heard of Malala, the girl who was shot by the Taliban for standing up for education, but only knew bits and pieces of her story. This book was a more in depth look at her life and the reality of what was going on in Pakistan. I would say this was incredibly eye opening for me. Don't get me wrong, I am not blind to the fact that we are spoon fed only the information that others want us to know, but man, this book really brought a magnifying glass (at least in my opinion) to the fact that the US public is only told a tiny bit of what is ACTUALLY going on. Malala reminds me of Anne Frank. These two girls (because, yes, they were literally GIRLS) inspire your rebellious spirit to question the status quo, to stand up for what you believe in and to survive at all costs. These girls were/ are wise beyond their years and remind me that there is so much more I can be doing. We can and will overcome the odds if we have the fire and fight in us that Malala demonstrates! I would give it a 9 out of 10.

With that, May has come to a close. My reading may not be going gang-busters like it has in the past, but I hope it never completely stops. If you have any suggestions, let me know! I'm always willing to add them to my library wait list!

PS I created an Amazon list that includes all of the books I've read and would recommend to others. Check it out!

What was the best book you read this year?