monthly miles {august}

Posted in Running by Kendra G.

Total miles: 140.67 — This was another highest monthly mileage yet.

Fun places I ran: Our Orange/Seminole County 20 mile loop was great! We ran around the UCF campus and all through Oviedo. The loop had several bathroom and water stops along the way and it was a great change of scenery. Also, 20 miles is FAR! We drove some of the route the next day going to church and running errands and I was reminded how far it really is!

I also ran some miles in Indiana next to the lake and the corn fields.

Races I ran: No races this month.

Favorite running thing this month: I was surprised with an early birthday gift from Greg, the kids, and my parents this past week, the Garmin Fenix3. I am still learning about all it can do, but I absolutely love it. The only times I’ve taken it off has been to charge it. And, it’s so pretty!

Longest run: 20 miles!

Non-running workouts: Over the course of the month, I did yoga stretch, the elliptical, piyo, and the recumbent bike. I definitely need to do more cross training next month.

Next month: September will be another high mileage month, including my longest run ever at 22 miles. We are in the toughest three weeks of training right now before we begin to taper the two weeks leading up to race day. I also need to do better with my cross training!

Happy running!

28Aug2017

Marathon Training {Week 10}

Posted in Running by Kendra G.

On October 8th, I will be running the 40th Chicago Marathon as part of team Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Monday

I rode on the recumbent bike at the Y and listened to a podcast. It felt good to get my legs moving.

Tuesday

For the hill workout we ventured out to run an overpass in the area. I did one mile warm up, 4 miles of hills back and forth on the overpass, and one mile cool down. It was a good change up from our normal speed workouts on Tuesday. I felt really good after my run, which was much needed. It had been a while since I had a really good run.

Wednesday

Rest day!

Thursday

Heather and I started early and did 3 miles before meeting up with the group for another 4 miles. 7 miles total at a 10:19 pace.

Friday

Another rest day!

Saturday

We met up at 4:30am for our long run on Saturday. We ran the little loop which is 2 miles, then headed out on the long loop for another 12 miles. The last 3 miles were supposed to be at marathon tempo pace and my last 2 miles were the fastest miles of my run at 10:06 and 9:26. Overall, I felt really good during and after my run. It was also great to see Kayla who I haven’t ran in a long time.

Sunday

I put off my run all day long as I was still trying to recover from my late night on Saturday night. I finally got out the door just after 5pm and got in 5 miles for my recovery run. It felt pretty good but my legs were definitely sore as the night went on.

Six more weeks until race day!

27Aug2017

my weekend in photos

Posted in Random by Kendra G.

family game night.

14 early morning miles with the girls.

soccer saturdays are back! she’s was ready for her first game of the season.

crosby and lincoln were twinning.

sweet boys playing legos.

cheering for kenley!

she loves snorkeling in the pool.

wine and fight night.

we stayed up way too late, but it sure was fun.

sunday morning shenanigans.

playing at the park.

***

we had a great weekend. how was yours?

21Aug2017

Marathon Training {Week 9}

Posted in Running by Kendra G.

On October 8th, I will be running the 40th Chicago Marathon as part of team Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Monday

With the craziness of the first day of school, I scheduled Monday as a rest day.

Tuesday

The plan called for 5 miles of speedwork on Tuesday. Michelle sent out the workout which was 400s, but I failed to realized that the whole workout added up to 5.5 miles. I wondered why I was the last one running after everyone else had finished!

1 mile warm up (10:20)
400m
Recover 90 seconds
Repeat 8 times
1.5 mile cool down (11:15)

My 400m repeats were 8:15, 8:07, 8:20, 8:22, 8:16, 8:28, 8:24, and 8:06; all within my 8:15-8:45 goal pace.

Wednesday

I went to the Y and did some stretching, as well as the recumbent bike. It was a good change of pace and a good workout.

Thursday

The plan called for 6 miles but I ended up running 4. The miles were pretty consistent at 10:10, 10:12, 10:04, and 10:14. The week had taken a lot out of me and I had a headache almost every day, so I didn’t feel bad cutting my run down.

Friday

Rest day!

Saturday

The plan called for 12 miles with the last 3 miles at tempo/marathon pace. Compared to my 20 mile run the week before, this 12 mile run was just as hard. I was thankful it wasn’t any longer, but it still took a lot out of me. My last three miles were 9:42, 9:41, and 9:56 and I pushed it a little too hard.

Though I wasn’t feeling great, we headed to the Y afterwards and I went to piyo. I knew I needed a good stretch and some strength training would be good for me. We ended the class with corpse pose and I could have laid there all day.

Sunday

I slept in before church and did my 3 mile recovery run in the afternoon. It was hot, but Kenley rode her bike with me to keep me company. I had a hard time keeping up with her!

This cutback week was hard! Looking back, it definitely took me a few days to recover from the 20 miler last weekend.

48 days until Chicago!

20Aug2017

my weekend in photos

Posted in Random by Kendra G.

family game night!

12 miles with the girls on saturday morning.

followed by piyo at the y!

oh, just buying halloween books at sam’s club in august.

3 mile recovery run with my sidekick. i was struggling to keep up with her!

that outfit.

i snuck out for some errands and a pedi on sunday afternoon. my feet needed it bad and it felt so good!

saying hi to our visitors on our way to get ice cream!

***

we had a great weekend but it flew by! how was your weekend?

15Aug2017

first day of school {august 2017}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

The kids are officially back in school!

There was a lot of anticipation, discussion, and nervousness (on my part) leading up to the first day of school. The kids would be heading off to two different schools for the first time ever. We started the morning with pictures, of course, then all loaded into one car to make the rounds for drop off.

We took Crosby to his school and we all went in to drop him off. I was really nervous about leaving him there without Kenley, but he marched in there like he owned the place and was perfectly fine! On the ride home at the end of the day, he told Greg “I like this school” like it was the first time he was ever there. He also asked where Kenley was… ha!

After Crosby’s drop off, we headed back to drop Kenley off. Greg and I had the opportunity to walk her into the school and into her classroom since it was the first day. When we arrived, I realized this was allowed for all parents, not just kindergarten, so it was a party! We saw Kyler and snapped the cutest picture ever before the girls headed to their classrooms.

We said goodbye once she was in her classroom and headed to work. She was quiet and was taking it all in, but she was excited and not sad at all!

They both had great first days and they’re ready to tackle the 2017-2018 school year!

14Aug2017

Marathon Training {Week 8}

Posted in Running by Kendra G.

On October 8th, I will be running the 40th Chicago Marathon as part of team Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Monday

Rest day!

Tuesday

I started my run later in the morning due to the amazing weather in Indiana. Tuesday was speed work and my workout included the following.

1.5 mile warm up
1 mile (goal pace 8:45-9:15)
.5 mile recovery
Repeat 2 times
1.5 mile cool down

I started out really well, even with the rolling hills in my parent’s neighborhood. My warm up was pretty quick at a 9:40 pace and my first mile repeat was an 8:40 pace. My recovery run took me to the end of the sidewalk on whatever street I was running on, so I turned around. My second mile repeat was 8:46. I was feeling really good at that point knowing I only had one more left. I ran up a hill during my .5 mile recovery but I was ready to tackle my third mile. During my third mile repeat, I looked down at my watch and it was paused. I was so upset. I have no idea what happened, how long it had been paused, or what my watch was doing at that point. I was so annoyed that I decided to just stop the workout and run. Since I was closer to my parent’s house again, I stopped at 6 miles, though I was supposed to do 7 total. The positives of my run was that I crushed the first five miles of my workout, the weather was amazing, and I saw some good scenery on my run.

Wednesday

I decided to sleep in, so I went to the Y after work for one mile on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the elliptical. I haven’t gotten on the elliptical in a while because it started to hurt my feet. I was definitely feeling it the next day.

Thursday

Unfortunately, I was back in the heat and humidity for Thursday’s run. This run was a true testament that the weather really makes such a difference from one run to the next. Thursday was SO hard. My 6 miles ranged from 9:59-10:21 but I felt like I was running on empty. The run also took a lot out of me. It took me a good couple of hours to recover. I felt completely drained.

Friday

After Thursday’s run, I decided to take another rest day before my long run on Saturday.

Saturday

Leading up to Saturday’s run, I felt the most nervous I have been through training. I’m not sure why 20 miles seemed so much longer than 18 miles which I just ran a couple weekends ago. Either way, it was weighing on my mind. Arriving home from my mini-vacation in Indiana on Tuesday night threw a kink in my week. I wasn’t eating very well and I didn’t do much to really prepare for my run. My alarm went off at 3:10am and it was go time. We started our run at 4:15am and set out to do 20 miles. We stopped to pick up new friends along the way which was super fun. The run was a struggle. It was the hardest run yet, both mentally and physically. I kept thinking about how I could have eaten better, stretched more, rolled my legs, etc. but I didn’t do any of those things. By miles 14-16, everything hurt. I finished. As I continued to think about it the rest of the day, I let up on myself a little bit. I ran 20 miles and that is something to be damn proud of! I now know how to better prepare for my 22 miler in a few weeks, so that’s a win too.

Sunday

Greg and I took the kids to the Y so we could run next to each other on the treadmill. I did my 5 mile recovery run and felt pretty good afterwards. As the evening went on, my legs started to hurt more. I made a point to stretch and roll before bed!

As week 8 comes to an end, I am officially halfway through our training plan! Only 8 more weeks to go!

13Aug2017

my weekend in photos

Posted in Random by Kendra G.

saturday came very early and i was out the door by 3:30am for my longest run ever! i did 20 miles with the girls and earned the nap i took later in the day.

we headed to the park and made it home just in time before the storms hit. it rained majority of the afternoon, so we played legos inside.

family movie night!

he got a new ‘do for school…and aged at least two years.

after church, we busted out breakfast, lunches, and dinners in our meal prep session. it’s tedious, but i am thankful for it throughout the week.

we headed to the y for a run together!

pool time with some threatening skies in the distance.

***

this weekend came after a long week of the kids being out of school. it was a weird week for me since we arrived home from indiana on tuesday and i was back to work on wednesday. greg worked for two days, then was home with the kids the rest of the week. we didn’t take nearly enough pictures, but we spent the rest of our sunday preparing for school to start tomorrow!

how was your weekend?

10Aug2017

Indiana {August 2017}

Posted in Travel by Kendra G.

The kids and I headed up to Indiana this past weekend. We had an action packed four days in my home state. Brace yourself, there are a lot of pictures!

We arrived on Saturday just in time to help set up for Maggi and Greg’s wedding shower! I am so thankful that we were able to be there to celebrate the happy couple. The theme was a fiesta in honor of their destination wedding. Everything about the shower was absolutely perfect. Abbi did such a great job with all of the little details that made the day so great. It was so good to see a lot of friends and family in one place too!

On Sunday, we got to see my grandparents, aunt, and uncle for lunch and fun around the fire. The kids got to spend some quality time with Arie and took turns taking her for walks. I think poor Arie was ready to be home after the long weekend.

We had a great lunch at BRU Burger on Monday, then headed to the Indianapolis Zoo. It had been so long since I had been there. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we drove by Victory Field so the kids could see where mommy and daddy met!

For dinner, we had a little pizza party with Celeste, Reese, Meghann, and Harper. It was so good to catch up with the girls, though it was short due to bedtimes for the littles.

The kids played at the park on Tuesday, we did a little back to school shoe shopping (what my mom and I do best!), and had lunch before heading to the airport.

I can’t believe how fast four days flew by! We had such a great time, but we were happy to get home to daddy too.

7Aug2017

Marathon Training {Week 7}

Posted in Running by Kendra G.

On October 8th, I will be running the 40th Chicago Marathon as part of team Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Monday

After our crazy, busy weekend, I decided to take a rest day on Monday.

Tuesday

The plan called for 7 miles of hills, which meant we needed to find an overpass to run considering there are no real hills in Central Florida. We met at 4:30am for one warm up mile, then 5 miles of hills repeats. The overpass is about .3 miles long so we ran that thing 15 times! We ended with one cool down mile for a total of 7. My stomach was upset majority of the run so it was a struggle. I was so happy to be done!

Wednesday

After sleeping in for the second morning this week, I decided I needed to do something when I got home from work. After the kids were in bed, I did a 25 minute yoga stretch workout from Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. It wasn’t a rigorous workout by any means, but it was better than sitting on the couch AND it forced me to stretch.

Thursday

I always look forward to Thursday runs after my Tuesday runs. This week I did 6 tempo miles and I actually kept them fairly consistent: 10:14, 10:04, 10:17, 10:42, 10:10, 10:09. I think next week I will dedicate my first mile to warm up, then concentrate on keeping the rest of the run consistent.

Friday

Heather and I did our long run on Friday since I was leaving town early on Saturday morning. We ran 5:1 intervals (run for 5 minutes, walk for 1 minute) for the first 8 miles. I had to get back to the house so Greg could go to work, so I ran the last 6 miles on my own. I ran them pretty quick since I was racing against the clock. I felt pretty good afterwards aside from some sore toes.

Saturday

I headed up to Indiana with the kids, so this was another rest day.

Sunday

The temps were much cooler in Indiana than in Florida so there was no rush in getting out the door for my recovery run. I finally got out there around 9am, which is unheard of in August. It was overcast and in the mid 60’s so I wanted to run forever! The rolling hills snuck up on me however and my legs were tired. I stopped after 4 miles though the plan called for 5, and I was perfectly fine with that decision. I am looking for one more cool weather run before I head back to the heat and humidity.