My workout schedule was a little different this week. I started teaching an ACL injury prevention class at work on Monday and Wednesday nights, which focuses on strength and balance training, and plyometric and agility drills. Because of the class setting I get to work out along side of the high school girls I'm training and since I don't get home on those nights until about 8:30, those workouts have to count as my work out for the day!

Monday: ACL Class

Tuesday: p90x plyometrics. I actually got the husband to join in with me on this one! He was pretty sore the next day but was glad I talked him into doing it. : )

Wednesday: ACL Class

Thursday: 1 mile jog - I was meeting a friend for dinner and thats all I had time for!

Friday: 14 mile run! And it was miserable! I mean. I was struggling. I had to stop and walk twice for about 2-3 minutes each. Which I guess when you're out there for 2 1/2 hours total walking for less than 10 minutes out of that time isn't bad, but I'd prefer not to have to walk at all. My ipod has officially gone to the dogs. It didn't work for me again this week. 14 miles without music to help you stay motivated is extremely difficult. Not to mention my right leg had this awful feeling of being achy and heavy. It was something I hadn't experience before but after some stretching after mile 6 it seemed to help a bit. Anyways, I guess I'm making excuses for why it was so hard haha but I eventually finished it. I think next week I'll back down to a 9-10 mile run to give my legs a little bit of a break and then the following week try to complete a 16 miler. We'll see how I'm feeling. :)

Saturday: I'm resting today, thanks to my legs being so tired after yesterdays run plus I spent the rest of my day off yesterday doing yard so I think my legs are grateful for the rest today.

How were your workouts this week?

Did you do anything to change it up?

Its official!

I'm all set up to run my 2nd full Marathon in October! October 27th to be exact. :) It's the 38th annual Marine Corps Marathon in D.C. I am of course anxious about running another full, but this one will be totally different from the first because this time I am running for something/someone bigger than myself.

I have teamed up with the Non-Profit organization 25:40 to raise money while I train for the race. This charity is actually a ministry based on the Scripture Matthew 25:40 “Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” It is run in South Africa, in the poverty stricken Eastern Cape, whose mission is help children survive the devastating disease of AID/HIV and poverty. When I decided to run the Marathon through a charity group I deliberated very carefully over the available groups to team up with. When I came across 25:40 it didn't take long before I chose them whole heartedly. You see, in 2004 I had the opportunity to visit South Africa on a Missions trip. I got an up close look at the poverty these children are living in. I held the children infected with HIV, I played with them and talked to them. I visited their homes in the squatter camps. These memories will be forever etched in my mind - South Africa will always have a special place in my heart. 

In order to run with 25:40 I have to raise $600. The money I raise will go specifically towards a young, 11 year old girl named Sikelele. Sikelele, whose name means "bless" is in 2nd grade and lives at home with her mother and younger sister. She has cerebral palsy and used to be ridiculed at the government run school because of her delayed speech and different gait. Thanks to 25:40 she now receives speech therapy regularly along with emotional and spiritual counseling and she is thriving in 24:50's after school care. I'm hoping the money I raise for her will continue to give her hope and a brighter future.

I am so excited to be able to use my passion for running to make a difference in someone else's life. I will not just be running for my own enjoyment but every step I take on October 27th will be in support of 25:40 and Sikelele. Hopefully it will provide motivation up and over the hills!

Hey!

I've been hard at work taking my sweet time changing up the look of the blog here! After Mark and I came back from lunch at my parents after church today, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon just resting. : ) Since I'm not very good at actually sitting and doing nothing (I'm not even a great nap taker...) I thought I'd spend some time playing around on the blog. I had been wanting to change things up a bit but I didn't realize I'd spend the next 6 hours working on it.

Not 6 hours straight though...

I did take Piper for a short walk.

And chatted with my neighbor for a few minutes.

And Mark took me out for a quick dinner at Subway and an ice cream date at Sweet Frog.

Told you I wasn't very good at doing nothing...

But mostly I've been watching TV and working on the blog.

I must say I learned a lot about HTML and codes and the like. Most of it goes way over my head, so I guess I shouldn't say learned as much as followed tutorials. 

Hope you like some of the new look! I'm not finished, but it will probably always be a work in progress. : )

Hope you had a great weekend and have a good start to your week tomorrow!

-Meg

I've got to give credit to 2 of the blogs that had really helpful tutorials... especially for adding the pinterest action!

Bloggerial

Code it Pretty: A Pinterest Gadget for Blogger

Its so hard to get back in to a workout routine after vacation, isn't it?? It's way more tempting to sleep! Sleep feels so good on vacation you just want it to never end...

Good Morning Church!

Well lovely people, our Europe vacation is coming to an end.

Today we spent our time resting and packing for our trip home tomorrow.

Except for a short trip to the Cath Kidston outlet where I spent entirely too much money but I'm justifying it by telling myself that I got a lot of Christmas gifts out of the way... : ) If you've never heard of Cath Kidston, google it. I mean, if you like Vera Bradley, you won't be disappointed.

I can't say how blessed we are to have been able to travel this year. I always said growing up that I wanted to travel before I had kids and I can't believe I actually got to do it! I've seen a little part of the world and it wouldn't have been possible without my hard working husband, who figured out our finances so we could go, and my family for watching our crazy pup while were gone! It has been a trip that I'll carry with me forever. Not that I think God is good only when He gives blessings, but every good and perfect gift does come from Him, and this trip was a good gift.

Well we are hanging out at the airport at Shannon International Airport, Ireland waiting to catch our flight back to London. It has been a crazy 48 hours, but that's sort of been the theme through out the trip.

We left the house in Oundle at 3:30 yesterday morning and thanks to a detour on the interstate we barely made it to the airport on time. I mean BARELY. We were pretty running through the airport to catch our plane - but we made it :) After a quick flight to Ireland (60 minutes maybe?) we went to pick up our rental van only to find out it wasn't there. As in, they cancelled our reservation and gave the van to someone else for an undisclosed reason. After almost 2 hours of figuring out what we were going to do we ended up split up in to two cars.


Which wasn't that big of a deal except for we only had one person that was confident in his European driving skills. Even though he admitted several times to being scared to death! (Not really what you want to hear from the man driving you!) my brother in law Jason did a fantastic job driving.





























Okay Sorry for the picture purge... I just wanted to relay to you the best I could how beautiful Ireland is! I was in Awe as we drove though the countryside. Amazed at what God had created, it certainly evoked songs of praise. How could it not???

I wanted to post even more but I tried to pick out some favorites to keep this post from getting ridiculously long. Hope you enjoyed the snap shots from here!

Tomorrow is our last day in Europe and then its time to fly home!

With Love from Ireland,

Meg

Whew! What a nice relaxing day! After making it back from Paris at about 2 am, we slept in until 10:30! We only had one thing to go see today so we took our time getting ready. Thank goodness for that though because we were exhausted after doing London and Paris back to back and touring around Paris in the heat!

Bonjour!