14 mile run + last weeks workout schedule

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?

Marine Corps Marathon 2013

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!

I would like to ask for prayers for training, and prayers for Sikelele - that she will continue to thrive under the ministry of 25:40

“Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Matthew 25:40

Pictures from: www.2540.org

First Free Printable!

I was just having one of those days at work today. You know the ones where nothing is really going your way and everything just seems to annoy you?

Yes? Glad I'm not the only one.

About mid afternoon I caught myself in the middle of complaining about a situation and stopped short. Not only was I not being a very enjoyable coworker to be around, I wasn't exactly letting my Christian witness shine through with all of my whining.

 So I wrote myself a sticky note. Just a quick reminder to NOT complain about the work day. I had it on the corner of my computer until the end of the day where I stuck it up at the top so it's there waiting for me when I get there tomorrow morning. 

My little sticky note inspired me to make my own printable when I got home from work today! 

Its not spectacular. Not the cutest thing you'll ever see. But I am so pleased with it!

 You might be seeing more of these from me in the future because I loved making this.

Yay for printables!

Just save my picture to your computer and viola! You can have the printable too. :)

Lazy Sunday = New Blog Look

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

12 mile run + last weeks workout schedule

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...

But I did manage to get some workouts in this week and I'm glad I did! Here's what my work out schedule looked like:

Monday:

p90x - Chest and Back + Ab ribber x - Oh push ups and pull ups galore!!! I am good at neither!

Tuesday: 

2 mile walk with Piper and the husband : ) This one didn't really get my heart rate up but burn any fat, but it got us moving after dinner on a rare cool night and our puppy definitely enjoyed it. :)

Wednesday:

p90x - Leg and Back - stairs were not my friend the next day OR the day after that. Muscle soreness to the extreme! But thats what I get for not being consistent.

Thursday:

2 mile jog + an Ab workout  - I took my Piper with me for this one too. She loves to run! I kept it short because of the muscle soreness from Wednesday!

Friday:

REST! Fridays are usually my long run mornings since I don't work on Fridays, but we went to the Redskins Training camp up in Richmond so I postponed until today.

Saturday:

12 mile run! - 10 miles by myself and 2 miles with my pup for a total of 12 miles! But everything was working against me this morning! Do you ever have mornings like that? I woke up to rain - which instantly tempts me to jump back in to bed.  I could feel some cramps coming on (thank you dear period. you always show up at the most inconvenient time.) AND my ipod that had been on the charging dock all night long, never actually charged. 12 miles without any music??? I seriously thought about ditching the whole run. But with only 10 more weekends between now and my race I knew I couldn't afford to skip it. So I went out and did it. And of course now I'm glad I did it! 

Sunday, tomorrow, will be a rest day before starting next weeks workout routine. Hopefully I won't get as sore!

How was your workout routine this past week?

Do you find its easier to stay motivated to work out when you're working towards a goal?

Sunday Service

Good Morning Church!

Understanding the depravity of man and reading how Paul opens up the gospel to the people of Rome this morning. 

Only when we feel and accept our disorder and guilt and the impossibility of justifying ourselves before God by saying we obey the Law, are we in a condition to embrace the grace of the gospel. 

We can have peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ! Understanding that while we were still sinners Christ died for us and reconciled us to God. Your debt has been paid dear friends! You need only to embrace this gift. 

Praise God for the gospel and His plan of Salvation through faith in Jesus Christ! 

Praising God for opening the eyes of my heart to understand the gospel and praying that yours may be open as well if they aren't already! 

Happy Sunday! 

HOME

We are home!

Just a short post with no purpose other than to say we made it home.

Our flight back was without incident. Thank goodness because the day after we got back there was a bomb threat on a U.S airways plane coming out of the same Ireland airport we were at just a day before we left!

I'm so glad to have my puppy back too! I missed our sweet girl. Theres nothing like the way your dog greets you after you've been gone for a while. The way their tails wag uncontrollably, so much that their whole body is shaking and they almost look like they're smiling.  There aren't too many people that get that excited to see you when you come home. 

She's happy to be home in her own bed!

(Except right here she's just mad that I woke her up. How dare I disturb her just to take a picture??)

Anyways! So glad to be home sweet home.

Just in time for my little sisters 20th Birthday tomorrow!

We're having a girls day with pedicures and massages.

Can I be any more spoiled this summer???

PS

Some, if not most, of the posts from our trip are posted on dates later than what they were written. I didn't have service over there so could only post from wifi areas even if I wrote them in "non" wifi areas. Then they apparently wouldn't post when I thought they did - like the last 2 or 3 that I had to repost just now - so then I would re-publish them and hope the wifi signal was strong enough to get it through. Just FYI incase you were wondering why they didn't really coincide with the trip. :)

Europe Trip: Day 11 in Oundle

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.

Our last dinner at and English pub. Fish and Chips all around of course. : )

Cheers, England!

It's been grand.

Europe Trip: Day 9-10 in Ireland

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.

Our Hosts figuring out the situation...

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.

Our first stop leaving the airport was the Blarney Castle - ever heard of the Blarney stone??? Apparently if you kiss this stone it gives you the gift of being a great story teller. I was all for it until I found out its extremely perilous to get to the stone!

You have to lay on your back and slide down through a crack in the castle wall, oh, about 6 stories up, with nothing underneath you except a metal grate! Here's Mark giving it a go...

There was a man who worked there who's job was to help people get to the stone. It all happened so fast, before I knew it he was pushing me down telling me to "give it a smooch!"

I don't know about you, but I think he enjoyed giving me a heart attack as my life flashed before my eyes! (Also just so you know, I didn't "give it a smooch". I'm no germophobe but its been kissed by thousands of people... theres a lot of international germs sitting on that rock! I did however have to make a smooching sound before he would let me up!)

Here are some of my favorite shots from the Castle...

The spiral staircases were ridiculous! So narrow and steep, its amazing imagining people living there so long ago and using that stair case every day.

We got caught in the rain outside of the Blarney Castle. It was one of those romantic huddle under a tree moments. : ) I'm pretty fond of those.

Inside one of the Towers!

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Having some fun!

On one of the trails is a cave that they call the "Witches Kitchen"  And this rock sits outside of it. Of course there are legends about the kitchen and this rock, but we don't put any stock in those sorts of things. 

Super cool caves near the castle that were used for escape routes for the residents of the castle!

After the castle we took a scenic route (about 4 hours!) to our bed and breakfast in Westport, Ireland. We also met my mother in laws cousins while we were there. They came in to town and had lunch with us.

Okay, now prepare yourself. You are about to see some of the most beautiful natural landscaping you've ever seen. And really, the pictures don't even do it justice. There was just no way to capture all of the beauty through a lens, I tried over and over, we all did. I'm sure by looking at the pictures you'll be able to feel some of the splendor. 

SHEEP!

Cliffs of Moher

You might recognize this scene from the movie Princess Bride.

Yep. It was filmed here! Inconceivable!

My husband knows how to be artsy with the camera, unlike his wife :)

Some people hopped the fence and walked right along the edge... Ummm No Thank You! I'd rather not fall to my death while on vacation.

I Love Ireland!

I just really love this guy, complete with his Ireland shirt. :)

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

Last One!

Promise. 

Europe Trip: Day 8 in Oundle

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!

After breakfast which was really more like brunch we decided to go for a jog/bike ride to the store - I like that I can say I went for a run in Europe!

The only other thing we did today was pack a picnic lunch and head to the safari zoo where we got up close and personal with some fun animals! As in Monkeys climbing on out car and walking through the lemur habitat as they jumped all around us! Unfortunately I hust realized that I didn't get any  pictures on my phone! They're all on Marks camera so I'll have to put some up later on! 

Okay, so without any pictures this turned into a short little rest day update :) I'm headed to bed early because guess what time we leave tomorrow??? 3:30 am - out the door at 3:30 to get to the airport in time to catch the flight to Ireland! But I Can't Wait!!

I'll definitely have pictures for my next update :)

Europe Trip: Day 6-7 in Paris!!

Bonjour!

We are saying goodbye to Paris after a long two days! I have to say it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I guess I had a preconceived notion of what Paris would be and it didn't exactly live up to my expectations. Doesn't that sound extremely spoiled of me??? I definitely don't mean to be that way about it... but you know how you imagine Paris as being romantic and pretty with bakeries lining the streets for you to indulge in pastries all day long? Or picnics on the lawn outside of the Eiffel Tower? It just- It wasn't like that. But it was still amazing to see and we had a ton of fun none the less. I'm undoubtedly blessed to be able to travel and visit these places. 

Despite the other part of Paris not being as I imagined, the hotel we stayed in was picturesque! Quaint and small in a little side street near the Louvre. 

We spent both days walking the streets taking in the sites. It was about 100 degrees outside and we probably spent 50 Euros on bottled water during the two days! (Bottled water was anywhere from $2-5 a pop!) crazy but we might have dehydrated with out it haha so I guess the money was well spent. 

We climbed the Eiffel Tower about 1/3 of the way and then got an elevator to the top!

And of course we took pictures in front of it! 

My sister and brother-in-law climbing!!

We were a little hot and sweaty by the end of our climb... 696 steps!

We got to see it lit up at night which was pretty spectacular I have to admit :)

We took a bus tour...

(Pretty good selfie huh?!?!)

We took a river boat cruise...

The next day we went to the Louvre!

It's the actual Mona Lisa!!! Crazy!

A mosaic tile floor from Isreal... 500 A.D.!!

We finally found some bakeries and got some sandwiches and pastries to go and had lunch by the river..

YUM!

And we walked by Notre Dame...

My last sandwich from a Paris Bistro! They sure do love ham and cheese sandwiches over here in Paris! 

We are now on the train back to London... Tomorrow is a sleep in day at the friends "home base" before heading to Ireland the next day!

Au revior! 

Meg :)