FINE: 30 for 30 for 30

Or should that be finally?  Not sure...

So, I did it.  Sometimes by wearing two outfits in one day...but that meant I was doing two workouts, so I feel like it counts.  Ready for #21-#30?  Good, me, too:

#21 - Labor Day

 I hope you realize this is not a buffer,
short-haired, tall version of me.

This nice guy wanted to bike 11+ miles for Labor Day. 
He's cute, so I went for it.

#11: Tee - Nike, sports bra - Champion,
running skirt, Champion, shoes - Nike

Me looking sweaty and labored after the ride

#22 - Be prepared for a Castle-worthy use of irony.  I determined to train for a fall half-marathon since I felt a summer half would require running in the heat of summer and would not be too fun.  Ironically, this year was one of our (shortest and) latest summers.  Ever.  So the hottest week of the year coincided with the most intense week of my training.  I decided to be super awesome/stupid, and wore all black for one of these hot runs.  I felt REALLY slow (physically and mentally).

#12 - training run on the hottest day EVER;
black tee - Nike

Black Dry-Fit capris - Nike, shoes - Nike

#23 - Commuter/Recovery Run

Sports bra - Champion, tank - lululemon

Capris - Old Navy, shoes - Nike



Saw this on a bridge on my way home - cute!



And then I saw these.

"Recovery run" is obviously code for
"stop and eat a ton of blackberries
whenever possible"

 I had decided to have leftover beets as my final snack/meal of the workday...like an hour or less before the run.  Fiber is great, but sometimes it's really inconvenient.  Like when you are a ways away from your apartment on a run and realize you need to find a bathroom...five minutes ago.

I somehow made it to the clubhouse in our complex and dashed in to the restroom.  Good thing there were no small children in Pull-ups or pregnant ladies in my path. 

Then I decided that I could totally run a little longer...which worked out awesome since the clubhouse comes with a mini-gym.

Me feeling much better post-potty break. 
Note the fan cheering me on.

This was one of those "real life makes working out inconveniet" sort of days.  I'd had to stay later at work than I'd intended, and needed to clean the apartment (and my sweaty self) plus strength train all before a meeting for my musical theatre class.  (Yes, I'm uber-psyched to be teaching again.)

Somehow, I made it, using those killer sport wipes, and a quick 10 minutes of seriously challenging weight-lifting moves.  Obviously you are dying to know what I ate as well.  Protein, iron, whole grains, H2O, plus necessary replenishing of the salt I sweated away.  You're welcome.

#24 - Wicked Witch of the West

I cycled to and from work.  Which is impressive for me.  It's only a couple of miles, but somehow hills that I don't mind running are REALLY not cool on a bike.  I kinda wish I had the awesome evil theme music from Wizard of Oz playing while I rode.  It would motivate me.  Or turn my skin green.  One of the two.

It was kinda fun because Friday is date night, so I biked over to the mall after work and met the hubby, who had biked to work as well.  We went and used our Oh! Chocolate groupon and sat and talked...right near the bench where we first talked about the fact that our relationship was probably headed for marriage.  Fun walk down memory lane.  Then we biked home together (he went slow for me - that, folks, is true love).


Top - Nike, sports bra - Nike,
pants - Express, shoes - Nike,
bleary eyes - long week

#25 - Freakout Speedwork Run

We got home from work and I still hadn't done my training run for the day.  I was starting to panic because I had not followed the training plan from Fitness magazine ABSOLUTELY PERFECTLY and since I'm a spreadsheets/planning/freakout kinda girl, I determined this meant I was in no way ready for the half and could never possibly be.  Ever.

My husband is a smart man and told me to go ahead and go for my run.  It's really nice being married to a personal trainer who knows how to handle crazy panicking women.  Or at least, me.

So, guilt relieved (I hadn't wanted to cut date night short) and the latest copy of Runner's World in hand, I went for my hour-long run on the aforementioned clubhouse treadmill and had a killer run.

Tee - Nike, sports bra - Nike,
shorts - Brooks, shoes - Nike

It's amazing how sometimes you need to just get out there and do the work.  Seriously, if I picked one run from the 10 week plan (well, 8+ weeks so far) that was a "game changer" for me, this might be it.  I did some leg strength training afterwards and some yoga and felt SO ready to tackle the half on October 1st. 


#26 - Weights and Wings

I LOVE Saturday workouts.  It's pretty awesome to sleep in and still get to start your day at the gym.  Everyone seems to be in a good mood, and a lot of folks are STILL sleeping in, so you don't have to share equipment and you can take your sweet time about it.  I did abs, back and biceps (my fave), the elliptical, and yoga.  SOOO relaxing.

Headband - lululemon, tee - Fall City Days 5k,
sports bra - Nike, capris - lululemon, shoes - Nike

The Huskies were playing that afternoon...so we ended up at Wing Dome.  Yes, you read that right.  We hardly ever go out to eat, but usually when we do, we try not to worry too much about being healthy.  If you eat well 90% of the time, you don't have to feel guilty about stuff like wings, drinks, and donuts.

I got some Peach Tea/vodka something or other. 
Perfect for a hot day.

The famous wings...not my thing, but pretty good

We balanced things out with our late afternoon snack at home: caprese with tomatoes and basil from our CSA!  (Thank you, Jefferson Davis!)

I would seriously eat caprese every single day.

#27 - Longest Long Run!!!

Jared and I don't usually get to train together, but we try to do our long runs together on the weekend.  We decided for the longest run of our training plan to head over to Redmond and run the Sammamish River Trail.  We like avoiding traffic and stoplights and car fumes, plus the trail is just plain gorgeous to run along...AND they have bathrooms and water fountains along the way.

We stopped at the Redmond Town Center Starbucks to fuel up...and carefully avoided too much fiber (see #13). 

Pumpkin cream cheese muffin and
yummy baby food fruit thing.

We filled up our water bottles with nuun and brought PUSH powder for later.

We warmed up pre-run with jumping jacks, body-weight squats, and walking lunges.  I hardly ever do a real warm-up, but whenever I do, I feel like it makes a big difference.  I should do it more.

Headband - lululemon, top - Nike,
Dry-Fit capris - Nike, shoes - Nike Free!

You may think this is almost the same outfit I wore for #2 of the 30 for 30 for 30.  You would be right, except I threw on the headband to throw you off.  Tricky, huh?  In all seriousness, this outfit is absolutely my favorite for a long run on a warm day, and since this would be the longest run of our training, I wanted to be as comfortable as possible.

We had a GREAT run.  It's a fun thing to do as a married couple, since Jared loves doing things together as a team and I love talking.  This way, we're both happy!  I'm also finally getting faster, so it makes me glad to know that Jared's actually getting a decent workout on our runs these days.  Our speed was totally on pace for our sub-2-hour goal.  Woohoo!


#28 - Yoga

Pretty chill...woke up and did yoga before a long day of work.  It's a stella way to get blood flowing and muscles working without getting all sweaty and gross.  It also gets your brain in gear and really starts your day off on the right foot.

Jacket - Everlast,
sports bra - Champion,
capris - lululemon

#29 - Rolling Hills

Another instance of cramming health and fitness into a tight schedule.  Worked late and had to really kick my butt out of the office and out onto the pavement.  The nice thing (or not so nice thing) about Bellevue is that you can run some serious hills without having to go out of your way.  At all.  It makes you really sweaty, but hey, at least you're outside and not staring at a computer screen.  In addition to hills, Bellevue is crammed with parks.  I did some speedwork at a tiny one, and then headed to the big pretty one near the mall for some additional mileage.  I finished up on the treadmill at work and then hit the weights for 15 minutes.  I keep reminding myself that something is better than nothing (especially when it comes to pushups).



Sweaty Meghan: tee - Nike, sports bra - Champion,
capris - Express, shoes - Nike

 This nice guy gave me a ride home, which was very helpful as you can tell from the stuff on the table that we had our quarterly sample sale at work, and I made out like a bandit.

Me and the nice guy

CONFESSION: I did buy one thing during the 30 for 30 for 30. 

I CAN EXPLAIN!!!

Since we are doing a lot of commuting by bike or on foot these days...and we are heading into the longest season of the year (rain), we realized we'd each need some sort of running jacket to fend of wind and drizzle.

We were admiring super cool, super pricing jackets at lululemon.  But it would've been the jackets or our kids' college.

We went with college and hit up the Nike outlet instead.  Jared actually ended up ordering his online since the outlet didn't have his size on hand.  Pretty cool though, right?

I haven't worn mine yet, but it's adorable and super light-weight...and cost about 1/4 of the lulu jacket.  $35 instead of $100 plus works for me.

See?  Tags still on!

#30 - What's All that Racquet?

My dad and I talked my mom into joining us on one of our racquetball dates.  She was a super good sport and surprised me with how well she played! 

To give you an idea of how good my dad is, my mom and I (as a team, getting 2 serves to our team for every 1 serve of his) only beat him one game out of six.  By two points.

Still, we had a killer time and I even ended up with a minor concussion from getting clobbered in the noggin by a rogue ball.  Now I'm obviously a serious player and other court-comers will be deeply intimidated by me.

Me and my cute mom!

I wore my "There Is No Finish Line" shirt and my Old Navy capris with my Nike Frees. 

This challenge really un-bored me with my current set of workout gear, and kept a tight watch on my budget.  I also got a good sense of what I do need next time I'm shopping for workout clothes/gear, and I stayed motivated to keep logging sweat.  All in all, I think this was a success.

Thanks for tuning in, and happy Monday!

Snack Attack!!! 30 for...Forever

Dates and Trader Joe's dark chocolate

Snacking throughout the day tells your body, "Hey, no fear - you aren't starving.  So chill out and use up some excess calories so I can lose weight/fat.  Thanks."

To me, this is a real win-win, since who doesn't like losing fat or eating snacks?  Right?

The best snacks for busy folks are those that don't need to be kept cold.  Dried fruit, dark chocolate (Trader Joe's 72% cannot be beat), nuts, seeds, crackers, etc. do quite nicely.

Another one-three punch of snacking (obscure Abbott and Costello reference) is that if you're planning ahead to bring snacks, YOU plan out the portion sizes.  You can't eat the whole bag of fishy crackers if you don't have it with you.

Whole wheat Goldfish and unsalted pistachios

Raw almonds and more Trader Joes

In other news, we're less than three weeks away from the half, and tomorrow is the last day of 30 for 30 for 30.  Crazy!  I'm kinda struggling here at the end with the outfit arrangements...but so far, so good.  Here's a few more...

Number 14...it was a super hot day (for the PNW), which is ironic.  Allow me to explain...I thought of training for a summer half marathon but didn't relish running in the heat, so I planned for a fall race instead.  The irony here is that we've had a REALLY late summer.  Like, Halloween decorations started to appear and so did the sun.

#14 - 1:45 long training run

I wore the Nike Frees, capri pants (I only own one pair of running shorts), and was gonna stick to just a sports bra due to the temp...but I kept debating whether it was appropriate or not.  About 15 minutes into the run I'd been honked at and whistled at, so I turned tail and added my pink, sweat wicking Nike tee and felt WAY better. 

Number 15...racquetball with my dad, followed by abs and yoga.  I wore my black Nike tee, the Champion neon blue sports bra (seriously, this thing is on fitness magazine models everywhere!), black "skirt" and the good ol' Nike Frees.  Forgot the camera, apparently.  Oh, well.  He kicked my butt as usual, so no history-making win to record.

Number 16...cycling, pumping iron, and treadmill "hill" repeats with the hubby...sporting my Fall City Days 5k tee with a Nike medium impact sports bra and capri pants from Express (yeah, they have workout clothes...crazy, right?  I like 'em in look but they don't wick sweat...like, at all).  More Nike Frees - should probably give them a break once in a while but they're so amazing!!!

Love a cute, cheap watch.  Tells time on workouts
and if you sweat on it or lose it, who cares?

Number 17...almost 2.5 hours of working out, including a recovery run, racquetball, weight lifting, and yoga.  Obviously this requires a LOT of sweat wicking and preferably looking cute as long as possible (and a lot of PUSH powder and some Muscle Milk).

I had my trusty lululemon slipless headband (most fall off my head...not sure what that means?), my beloved Nike running top (it's neon yellow and makes me feel buff during weight training), Old Navy compression capris, and a pair of shoes that I may or may not be obsessed with.

Number 18...after busting my butt the day before, I took it easy with cycling and yoga. 

Tee - Nike, bra - Champion

Capris - lululemon, shoes - Nike

Number 19...got an awesome trail run with a dear friend...who is also the mom of one of my best friends and one of my mom's best friends.  Got all that?  Pexa's awesome because she loves Jesus, has run a bunch of marathons, and recently completed the Seattle to Portland ON A TANDEM BIKE with her husband (and lots of other reasons, but her resume requires like 20 pages and is beyond the scope of this post).

I hate chaffing and bug bites, so this is part of my outfit.

I tend to be a mono or duochromatic (is that a word?) kinda gal...but this time I went with a ton of colors.  Nike red-white-and-everything tee, turquoise Nike high impact bra, Brooks purple shorts, and pink Nike trail shoes.  These aren't really trail shoes...but I wear them on trails.  So there.

Number 20...Jared and I try to do our long runs together on Sundays, since we generally can't do any other training together.  The Sunday before Labor Day, he had to work, so to make church a priority (something we're working on), we needed to split the run in half.  Runner's World says it's okay, so we figure we're golden.  We did about an hour before his shift and then did 45 minutes or so of hills and speed work in the evening when he got done.

Bra - Nike high impact, top - lululemon,
capris - Champion, shoes - those killer Nike Frees

Hopefully I'll post the final 10 outfits/workouts tomorrow.  Only 10 runs left till the big race - woohoo!!!  Happy Tuesday.

Busy Bee

Sometimes life gets too crazy for a full-blown nutritious meal. 

That's why I love carrots.  Pair them with the killer thin crust uncured pepperoni pizza from Paul Newman (there's a coupon!), and you're good to go.

On the 30 for 30 for 30 front...

Apparently I didn't photograph outfit 11.  I wore my green Nike tee with a high impact white sports bra (also Nike), my Nike dry-fit capris, and my Nike frees.  So it was a "Just Do It" kind of run.

#12 - lulu top, Nike med. impact bra, lulu pants,
Nike xtrainers - racquetball w/Dad

#13 - Nike top, lulu pants (same as above),
Nike old shoes...which I call trail shoes,
lulu black jacket (not shown) - run w/Pexa

Halfway through the Half Training/30 for 30 for 30 update

For you Fitness Face-Off stalkers...I only did my 15 minutes of yoga 6 out of 7 days this week.  Still reaping the benefits, though, so I'm counting it as a win.

Woohoo!  I am currently in the 6th week of my 10 week training plan for the Bend Half Marathon.

#9 of the 30 for 30 for 30:
training/commuter run

As you may know, I ran my first half marathon in May of this year, and only signed up as a result of being sweet-talked by my hubby.  ("We'll run together - I'll go slow for you - it would be so fun!")  As it turned out, I (enjoyed - gasp!) finding and executing a training plan, doing the majority of the runs on my own, and actually halfed it up solo when the hubby wasn't feeling well on race day.

You know why a lot of smart folks lose weight with programs like Weight Watchers?

Accountability.

I know running is good for me, and if I'm honest, I usually enjoy doing it.  I'm great at sticking to a plan in order to prep for a race.  But no race = no training plan = me lifting weights and not running...like ever.

So after saying I would only do one half - EVER - for my sweet husband...I turned around and signed up for the Portland Rock 'n' Roll Half next May (hey, it was on sale!) and then got antsy for something a lot sooner when my inner thighs started to look the way they always have and not how they'd begun looking in April and May.

And I love Bend, as I think we can all agree.  October is my birthday...plus it's in the fall.  What better way to spend our next sweataway than running a race together in beautiful Oregon?

Train, Train, Train (the twain on twack twee)

What's fun is that this time through the old running plan, I'm way more confident and prepared. 

Pace: Since I beat my goal time by about 10 minutes in my first half, I've upped the ante a little in training...I'm shooting for under 2 hours this time around, and so far the speedwork has gone well.

Gear: I have some new Nike Frees that you've probably noticed...I'm basically in love with them (Jared loves shoes, too, so I think he's cool with it) and wear them like crazy.  I also have more high-impact sports bras in my workout drawer, so the girls are much happier.  (Seriously, if you invest in any fitness attire or gear, prioritize your footwear and your bras...go cheap on something else like a head band or a pair of dumbells.)

#7: commuter ride and
strength training at home

Strength-training: This spring, my weight training really petered out quick.  I had been doing 3-4 sessions of strength training a week all fall and winter and found it hard to make time or have energy for more than 1-2 sessions a week.  It made me kinda bummed out.  This time, I've been able to get 3 on average, and I can tell it's making a difference in my moods, my body fat goals, and my injury prevention (core work for runners really protects your back).  It will also be nice to not feel like I'm way behind with weights once the half is over!

I'm so bummed I can't find this killer workout online! 
I think from Self magazine?  Kicked my butt.

Cross-training: Last time, I took "cross-training/rest" as "rest or maybe go for a walk."  Now I have a brand-spankin' new bike (gotta love good deals), which I am painfully learning to use.  Yes, I learned how to ride a bike as a peewee...but in my neighborhood growing up, we had a shortage of massive hills.  My quads are really getting a workout.

#6: riding through Kirkland with the hubby!

Chilling out: Sometimes, life and stress and lack of sleep catch up with you...and you need to know when to take some time to rest and recover.  Partway through training I got sick and had to slow things down and miss a few runs. 

Me after a killer nap

Fresh basil makes a great pre-nap snack

#5 and #8: yoga chillout sessions. 

Per the hubby, my lulu hot yoga shorts are "yoga booty shorts and therefore not appropriate for public consumption."  So you'll have to take my word that I mixed up the outfit pairings.

Balancing life: To make time for all these sweat sessions, I've really had to work things into my average week.  Thankfully I live close to my job, so I check off a lot of workouts just in the to and fro type of thing. 

Cycling home

#10: very early run to work

#10 cont.

And there you have it...a little update on the first 1/2 of my 1/2 training, and the first 1/30 of my 30 for 30 for 30.  More photos and blather to come.

Have a fit-tastic Labor Day Weekend!!!