One Year Later...My Last Post

Hey everyone! I have had such a good time writing this blog for the last year. But upon some serious thinking, I've decided that I really do love READING blogs more than I enjoy writing my own. It was really fun at first, and gave me something to do when I had nothing else to do.  But in the last couple of months as life has gotten busier and busier, it has kind of become a chore.  More often than not I would choose to read my favorite blogs rather than write an entry for my own....oops.

 

 

When I first started writing this blog I wanted to up my mileage and run some races.  I ran my first 10k and my first half marathon in the last year!!  And I decided to give in and order those rediculously expensive pictures from my half marathon, just because it was my first.

Matt and I before the race.

 

Super washed out picture of us with our friends Pat and Beth.

 

 

this baby is getting printed!

 

FINISHER!!!

 

I can say that finishing the half marathon was one of the biggest accomplishments I have ever had! I learned a lot durning training about myself and about the hubs. Matt was so great throughout this whole thing. I doubted myself a lot and he was always there cheering me on.  I will never forget crossing the finish line and hearing him yell my name and waving at me like a 4 year old because he was so excited that we both finished. Right now I'm taking a small "break" from running. I've cut my running down to twice a week and have been doing a lot more lifting and am loving it.

 

My future goals:

Take the 6 elements classes for Crossfit.  I have been wanting to try crossfit for the past 6 months, but knew I would not have time during marathon training. I also knew that is was  kind of expensive. Well Matt has offered it up as a kind of late birthday gift!!! We are going to do it this winter because we both tend to get a little antsy in the winter being trapped inside so long.

 

Run another half marathon and finish under 2.10.  Yes I want to run another, but not for a while.  I have talked to my sister about running the Pittsburgh Rock N' Roll Half next August. That sounds like a lot of  HILLS. haha.

 

Travel travel travel.  I want to see the world....on a limited budget. Matt and I are planning to go to Europe within the next couple of years and I cannot wait. Two weeks in Europe, possibly to England, France and ITALY!! There are so many places to see out there. Sometimes I do get very bored of the northeast. I want to explore as much as I can before we get "tied down" (I'm sure you all know what I mean by that haha). 

 

Keep a balanced life. I'm always trying to make small adjustments to make sure that my life stays balanced between friends, family, work, working out and eating right. I never want one area to get too extreme which can happen so easily. 

 

 

 

I have loved blogging so much and thank the blogs I read for giving me inspiration both in the kitchen and in the gym. I have realized that there are plenty of people out there just like me, that if we met, would not think that I am weird for eating what I do or for working out as much as I do. It makes me happy and it obviously does the same for them.  Now if only they didn't all live in California and Florida haha. Apparently huge blogging states.  Delaware....not so much. 

 

On that note I'm outta here! Thanks everyone for reading! I never thought I would have more than 5 readers (my parents, Matt and a few friends) and it has amazed me that some days I got into the hundreds for views.  Definitely something I will always remember! Who knows, maybe one day way way down the road I'll start a blog when I get prego...cuz that's just going to be a whole lot of hot mess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Philadelphia Rock N' Roll Half Marathon!

Holy crap I did it! I've never been so sore in my life, but I did it and I never stopped running!

That's me in the blue shirt and blue hat (arm in the air obviously). Alright now let's rewind and get to the details.

 

Matt and I went to dinner with some friends on Friday night and then went home and watched a  movie with this guy and turned in early.

Champ's bottle cap hat.

 

Saturday morning we dropped Champ off at daycare and then left for Philadelphia!

damn truck getting in my way

 

We checked into our hotel, along with most of the marathon runners.

Our hotel.

 

Our next order of business was to go to the expo across the street to pick up our bibs and swag!

Rockin my swag bag. I also picked up a 13.1 bumper sticker.  Why else would you do one of these things if it weren't for the bragging rights, right??

 

We met up with some friends who were running the race for dinner. We went to a gourmet pizza restaurant and carbo loaded ourselves into a food coma.

 

When we got back to our room I put out all my things for the next day.

 

We went to bed around 9:30 and had our alarms set for 5:40 the next morning. I slept like CRAP. I kept having all these crazy dreams about getting there late and missing the race. I'm a headcase obviously. Well the alarm went off and Matt and I were both already awake, trying to stay quiet because we thought the other person was sleeping. I made my breakfast and got ready.

half a whole wheat bagel with almond butter and craisins

 

We're ready!

 

Then we met up with Pat and Beth and walked the mile to the start line:

During our walk there we talked about how much the mile walk back to our hotel would suck after we were done. And we were totally right. It was hands down the worst part of my day.

 

When we got the the start site, we all checked our stuff, used the porta's and lined up. Once the first corral left we moved up pretty quickly and I was running before I knew it.

 

The course was really great overall. It took us through downtown first and then we went to more of the outskirts of the city along the delaware river.  The course was pretty flat, that is until you got to the last couple of miles. I was feeling really great for most of the race. My hips started to get a little sore around mile 7, but that is the norm for me so I just dealt with it. I took advantage of the water stations the had and stopped at most of them. By stopping I mean stopping for enough time to take two sips of water. This would usually only slow my pace by a couple seconds and I would catch up pretty quickly.

 

At mile 8 we went across a bridge looping around to go along the other side of the river. This is when the incline started to get to me a little. I got to mile 10 and thought ok, I can do this.  Then I hit mile 11. The sun was getting hot and there was no more shade around. The incline started to get...interesting. We were slightly inclined up and to the side so it started really bothering my knees. My pace slowed a good 20 seconds. When I hit mile 12 I was exhausted. I just kept telling myself not to walk. I started counting my breaths to 100 or 200, then would glance at my watch to see how close 13 was. When I saw the 13 sign I attempted to sprint, meaning a 9.50 pace haha, and crossed the finishe line. Matt found me soon after and got a good picture!

I was trying to be positive with the thumbs up, but I actually felt like I could puke at any second and my hips and knees were on fire.  I grabbed a chocolate milk and my medal and went to find Matt and his parents to sit.

My official time: 2:12.38 (10.07 pace)

I really wanted to finish under 2:10 and was a little peeved because my Garmin and everyone else's garmin around me read the course at 13.3 miles instead of 13.1.  My garming got me finishing 13.3 miles in the same time with a 9.59 pace giving me my goal. So I guess you could say I kind of acheived my time goal. I finished 8763rd out of 15,116 people and I finished about middle of the pack for both my age group and for woman. So at best I am average lol. Matt on the other hand kicked major ass. He finished in 1.38 and I couldn't be more proud! And then we paid for it.

 

I could barely walk at this point. I tried to do some stretching which helped a little, but that mile walk to our hotel just about killed me. We showered up, checked out of our room and grabbed lunch at the hotel restaurant.

veggie wrap with some sort of cheese and pesto with chips and a decaf coffee. I devoured it all.

 

We drove home after lunch and made it in time for the second half of the eagles game. I'm currently sitting in a recliner with my feet up and have been here most of the day. I'm hoping most of the pain is gone by tomorrow.  I also had a few chafing areas. One from my Ipod holder:

Doesn't look too bad but this sucker was burning the last coupld of miles from my sweat.

 

And one from the pins on my bib:

I guess the pin was rubbing on my hip the entire time. Ouch.

 

Overall it was a great experience and I'm pretty sure I would do another one. Maybe somewhere different. We both like the idea of doing one fo the disney marathons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Tapering WAIW

Yay! I can't believe we are halfway through the week already and only 4 days away from my first half marathon!  And it's what I ate wednesday. 

 

My breakfast is a new favorite, oatmeal minus the oats. 

covered in peanut butter obvi

 

This took me from 6:30 to 10ish. Then I scarfed an apple and had some mint tea because my work is freezing.

My favorite tea. Perfect for a person with a restless stomach.

 

Lunch:

Tuna salad made with greek yogurt instead of mayo. Filled with edamame, carrots, green peppers and craisins.

and half a KIND bar. 

 

For dinner I made one of our favorite dinners, black bean burgers.  They are really easy to make and so flavorful.

cooking on the griddle.

 

black bean burgers with carrots and......blue box mac and cheese. Pick your battles ladies haha. Today I chose to give in to Matt's request lol.  Next time I'm going to make homeade mac and cheese and see what he thinks.

 

I will likely be having a nice square of dark chocolate later tonight along with some almond butter!

 

After dinner I did a short abs workout and took this little man for a walk.

"my toof is stuck on ma lip"

 

I've been taking it easy this week, trying to rest my legs before the big race. I ran 2 miles on Monday along with an abs and arms workout and ran 3 miles outside yesterday.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I'll be at the gym doing upper body and 2 miles again and then resting on Friday and Saturday before the race. I'm so ready for it to be here. I'm ready to prove to myself that I can do this!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Easily Influenced

Hey everyone. It's been a while since I last posted! Where did I leave off?? The 5k I think.  Going into the 5k I wanted to take it slow and run a comfortable yet quick pace. I was worried about trying to go all out and straining something right before the big race. So that was the plan....that isn't exactly what happened.

 

The gun went off and I took off with everyone around me. I looked down at my watch at one point and I was running a 7.54 pace. SLOW DOWN!! haha. I really had to slow it down a bit. I ended up finding a semi comfortable pace at around 8.30.  It was just so hard for me to slow down when everyone around me is going so fast. I'm really going to have to work on this for the half marathon. I'm too easily influenced (fyi I was actually told this by a supervisor at one of my college internships. oops. I guess if my friends go jump off a bridge, I'll be right behind them.)

42

Megan Coffin

Newark DE

27

25

F

3/18 19-29

5K

26:19.7

26:25.9

8:28/M

 

I finished 42nd out of almost 200 people, and 3rd in my age group. I was very happy with it. Matt kicked major butt and finished first in his age group.

 

The rest of the week went as usual, and then came Saturday morning. Matt and I woke up early for our "long run." We both took the mileage down this week to start tapering and resting out legs. We ran 8 miles!

 

9.50 pace!

 

I decided to wear my little fanny pack thing this week to test it out for the race. I'm thinking of having my GU Chomps in it so I can just eat them during the race without having to carry them in my hand the whole time.

 

Sporting my eagles gear for the start of the football season.

 

When I got home from my run, I refueled with a smoothie, did some packing, ate lunch and headed out the door. I went to my friend Chelsea's family Pig Out.  They have it on their farm every year and it's amazing. Her dad slow roasts beef, ham and turkey and everyone brings a side or dessert. There is also a truck of beer...that's right a truck.

 

Unfortunately the weather did not hold up.

 

Running from my car. I literally got there 2 minutes before it started pouring.

 

Luckily, the whole thing was held in their huge barn.  And after the rain we saw a double rainbow!

 

Later that night, Chelsea's dad somehow managed to lite the bonfire.

 

 

Me and Chelsea!

 

 

We hit the hay early and I got an amazing 9.5 hours of sleep!  We woke up to a gorgeous day and wished it had been like that the day before.

 

 

 

I got home right before the Eagles game started today.  I watched the beginning and then snuck in a quick yoga workout around half time. My legs have been really tight lately. I needed to stretch so bad. I found this really great website where you can do online yoga workouts in the comfort of your own home.

 

http://www.doyogawithme.com/yoga_classes

 

I did the 53 minute Level 2 yoga/pilates fusion and loved it.  Hope everyone had a good weekend. This time next week I will be able to call myself a half marathoner! (and will get to put a cool 13.1 bumper sticker on my car....I mean that's why I'm really doing it).

 

 

 

 

 



WAIW

I'm so happy it's already Wednesday. Gotta love short weeks! And gotta love What I Ate Wednesday! I know it's all your favorite day of the week lol. 

 

I started out my morning with one of my new favorite breakfasts. The 2 ingredient pancake!

1 egg and 1 banana. That's it. Then feel free to play with other ingredients. I added blueberries to mine before cooking, and then almond butter and pumpkin butter to the top. My friend Chelsea got me the pumpkin butter for my birthday and it's like crack. It's sooooo good.

 

I had a handful of trail mix a while later to get me through to lunch.

Morningstar veggie patty on a deli flat with provolone cheese and spinach. Apple on the side. I'm running a 5k race today after work so I wanted something with carbs for a bit more energy! 

 

When I got home from work I ate an apple cinnamon greek yogurt.

 

I'm getting ready to go into Wilmington for the 5k tonight at 6:30.  When I get home I will most like be chowing on some boring salad, so I will entertain you all with a much more exciting meal, last night's Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.  Another pinterest recipe of course.

 

The recipe was so simple. Saute onions and mushrooms, add roast beef, stuff peppers, cover in cheese and bake.

 

Cheese on the bottom

 

Stuff and top with cheese.

 

Ummm hello. These were delicious.  Matt loved them too! Success!  I love when I find recipes that we both like. 

 

Ok time to go change and stretch.  Fingers crossed we don't get rained on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Weekend In Pictures

I've had such a nice relaxing Labor Day weekend. It started out with roasting some marshmellows and having a couple of drinks by the bonfire.

 

Champ had a good time too

 

Saturday I woke up for my long run.  12 miles in 2.00.28! Right on track for a 2.10 finish...hopefully.  The only bummer of my run....some rude person decided to take my frozen water and GU chomps from beside my car.  I realized this after mile 10 and was furious because I was so thirsty. I finished my run, begged some random couple for some of their water lol, and sped home to get my recovery smoothie

Thoughts of this smoothie usually get me through the last bits of my long run. "finish and get your smoothie" haha. 

 

After I washed up I had some baking to do for our friends Joe and Cara. They just had a baby and we were going to meet her later that day. I couldn't go empty handed so I made her some oatmeal muffins

Before they were baked. The top row has blueberries, raspberries in the middle and craisins and walnuts on the bottom.

 

Grabbed a quick lunch before we headed out:

 

Egg white scramble with ham, spinach, zucchini and green peppers. YUM

 

Later I munched on my birthday gift from my sister to hold me over until dinner:

Pretty much the best gift ever. Custom made granolla bars from Youbars.com! Check it out!

 

On Sunday I woke up to sore legs. I did a quick 40 minute arm and ab workout before we headed out to Chadds Ford Winery with Matt's sister and husband.

 

haha seductively sipping his wine slushy....best idea ever!!

 

Unfortunately the weather was CRAP. It started pouring on us and they didn't have any indoor seating. We headed home, but not before stopping somewhere very exciting!!!!

I popped my whole foods cherry haha.

Grind your own nut butter station. I had never been in a whole foods before Sunday, and really wish it wasn't so far away from my house. I just walked up and down every aisle oogling all the food goodies. I didn't buy much, just some trail mix, but I loved seeing what everyone was talking about.

 

For dinner I made Matt and "man meal."  I cooked pork ribs for the first time ever. I cooked them in th crockpot with some bbq sauce and onions.

Ribs, potato salad made with greek yogurt and salad. The ribs were pretty good.  Matt loved them so I think I earned some major wife probs.  This is a thank you for him always trying all my weird food that I make him eat.

 

We had a nice relaxing night after dinner, just hanging out and watching a movie. 

 

This morning I woke up to more rain! Our gym was closed today for the holiday, so I called my rents and asked them if I could use their treadmill after I ate breakfast.

 

For breakfast I made one of Tina's two ingredient pancakes for breakfast. All it is is one banana and one egg! So simple. I also added some blueberries and cinnamon to mine.

I topped mine with peanut butter and pumpkin butter.

 

Then I was off to my parent's house to run 5 miles. I finished in 49.30 and my legs were not very happy. They are still a little sore from Saturday so the run was difficult.  Matt and I are currently putting a bunch of our wedding pictures in frames and hanging them around the house!! Then we are off to a rainy day bbq.