Half-Marathon Training Week 2 / Dallas Color Run

It's been a long week! Work has been crazy, I've been keeping up with my running and I also just got back from the Dallas Color Run! Next week will be even more crazy. I have 3 work events and a few plans with friends. I'm also increasing my running distance so we'll see how it goes!

Monday: Rest Day, and I took this to heart. Didn't do much, came home from work and watched The Voice until I fell asleep. I think someone even asked me to work out and I refused.

Tuesday: Ran 3 miles after work. I was excited and ready after my rest day but it wasn't my best run - my stomach felt weird and it was just "ok".

Wednesday: Option day - run or cross train. It was nice out so I decided to run 2 miles a different route after work. I started off strong the first mile but then all that was going through my mind was "IHATETHISIHATETHISIHATETHIS". So when I turned around I walked all the way home. I felt a little defeated and was nervous about Thursday because I was going to run before work.

Thursday: I had a work event at night so I had to do my 3 miles in the morning. I woke up at 5:30 and headed out not long after that. It was very cold. The entire time I hated my life, but as soon as I got home, I felt amazing the rest of the day. It wasn't until I was still at work at 9 at night that I started to get tired. I really do like running in the mornings to get it over with. I think that once it gets a little warmer it's going to be such a great way to start out the day.

Friday: Rest day. I went to Sunrise Yoga at 5:30 with a friend and that felt great. I've been practicing Kundalini yoga, which is really different than other types. There's a lot of breath work (good for runners) and last week we did a set of poses and moves that aims to protect one's aura. There's also chanting and something called "breath of fire" (Yes it's as bad as it sounds.) The teacher is really nice and she knows Cyndi and I are training for the half. I think I'm going to keep going to her, even though I really love Happy Hour Yoga too!

Saturday: Jess and I woke up bright and early to head down to Dallas for the 2012 Color Run! If you've never heard of a color run, it's actually really cool. You run a 5k, and at each kilometer, they throw powdered color at you. You come out looking paint-splattered! And at the end there's a few color throws, where everyone gets the "color" and throws it in the air, creating a huge dust cloud.

We decided to stay in a hotel the night before and play around Dallas on Saturday. We got in around noon and picked up our race packets at Luke's Locker. Sometimes I forget Oklahoma has a huge lacking on cool (running) stores and I really loved this place, especially the yoga section. There was lots of clothes and fun stuff for the typical yogi, along with a huge Nike section for the runner in me. I didn't buy anything.

We walked across the street to find a restaurant and hit up Urban Outfitters. We ate at Rockfish Grill which I was a little nervous about, but I had the grilled salmon and sweet potatoes and it was AMAZING. I ate the whole meal, including part of a salad. It was so good. We went to UO and I picked up this incredible black blazer for $30, when it was originally $80. I also tried on some of their jeans, and even though I look awful in skinny jeans (who invented those, right?) the zipper zipped and the waist fit! That would have never happened before. :)

We then went to our hotel and the first thing I did was hit the Fitness Center for my cross-training. I didn't do it last week and I knew that I was going to be a mile short on my long run this week, so I ran a mile on the most rickety treadmill of all time, and then did a  bunch of push ups, sit ups, and planks, along with some squats, etc. There was 2 creepy guys in that small room so I got out of there quick.

I took a trip a few years ago to Dallas to shop and relax and when I was there my friends and I went to a Mexican Restaurant called El Fenix and I had the best margarita of my entire life there. I don't even like Mexican food but I wanted to go and Jess looked it up and there was one by our hotel.

The margarita was as good as I remember it, but I gorged myself on queso, chips, and a giant sopapilla with chocolate, carmel and ice cream. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling so sick and was worried that I wasn't going to be ok for the run. I didn't sleep very well Sat night. I'll NEVER do that again. I want to eat healthy foods!

Sunday: We ate at the continental breakfast (I had half a bagel with PB and some fruit and also discovered I'm allergic to cantaloupe.) and headed to the State Fair park for the run. It was so so fun! There was about 10,000 people there and we all wore white, then were hit with color as we ran through the "color zones". Then at the end there was a few "color throws" and it was just a huge cloud of smoke and color. I didn't run the whole time, and it was only 3 miles, so we'll see how that effects my training week next week!

Some pictures from my Dallas trip:

That's it for this week! Next week I have 3 work events (one on a Sunday) so squeezing my training in will be interesting. I've also written a pretty long entry about running for LiveSigmaKappa that I think you guys will like when it comes out! Ciao!!

Mal xoxo