Running Army Wife

I'm sore lately. I decided I needed to ice more and saw these sweet ice pearls at the store. Basically, they are artificial frozen peas. But they look way cooler and stay cold longer, I think. I also decided that I wanted to try Trader Joe's chocolate covered ginger. Did you know that ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory? I read that in Runner's World once, and that's how I justified splurging on it. Cuz it's basically good for me when I'm sore. ;)  Also, as I was looking at my dailymile stats (cause I love doing that), I saw today that I ran more miles in February than I did for any of the previous 12 months. I think running has been my therapy. And I've been stressed. I have still been doing better.. not as sad and depressed. But still stressed. And I think that's why this was a higher-mileage month.  And this was an especially stressful week. I kind of got woken up, because I found out that something kind of dangerous happened with James. I ...

Running is going really well for me right now. I think part of it is that I like my training plan better this time. It's the Hal Higdon Intermediate one. People from my old running club had been raving about it, so I decided to try it out. I'm in the middle of week 7 right now. Hal Higdon Intermediate Half Marathon Training Plan I had an 8-mile run last weekend. My average pace was a 9:08. I had run 8 miles the weekend before on the treadmill (I was actually supposed to race a 10k last weekend.. I decided to just run 8 miles again instead) and my average pace was a 9:35. And as I've looked back at my "long" runs, my pace has actually gotten better, even though I'm running a little longer each week. So that's encouraging! Half marathon PR on the way? Hopefully! I also just had a really good workout last night! My 400 splits were 1:53, 1:54, 1:40, 1:54, 1:54, 1:56, 1:55, 2:13 (had to turn around in the middle of last one so it slowed me down). But ma...

My man with a puppy. What more could I ask for in a picture??  PS: Fun fact: 6 years ago today, my husband asked me to be his girlfriend. On the way home from a rock climbing date. :) hehe. I have been with him almost exactly 1/4 of my life.

If deployments had phases, I think I'm on to Phase 2. It took about 2 months to get over the whole grieving period I think, for me. I'm not saying that I was crying for a whole 2 months and that I didn't have some good days in there, but at some point recently I realized I'm in a routine now, and I'm doing a lot better. There are still some bad days. They tend to sneak up on me. I wish I could predict them ahead of time. But they don't seems to happen as often now. First of all, I finally scored a job. I had a job on Fridays helping to TA a class that's actually using my degree. But now I'm working at a running shoe store too! So I have something to do during the week now and a little extra spending money. Second of all, I'm doing really well with my half-marathon training. Which just feels good. I've also been doing yoga on a fairly regular basis and I'm beginning to see an improvement in my flexibility (heck yeah!). And lastly, James...

1. This underwear. They are called rundies . How frickin' awesome. When I saw them, I was like..  I need these right now. But then I saw the price. Sad day. You can find them here .  2. Doctor Who. Particularly Rose and Doctor #10, cause they are adorable. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay. If you like weird sci-fi love stories, I highly recommend it. I've been watching on netflix. 3. This video:  4. This workout. I found it here on pinterest. 5. This beer. Specifically, this beer on Sunday afternoon after my long run. I'm not much of a drinker, but there's something after drinking it after my long run that I love. I feel like I've earned it. And also, I'm a bit paranoid that beer will make me run bad (even though Runner's World recently concluded this wasn't the case). But I usually take a rest day after my long run day. So I get to enjoy my beer worry-free. :) Cheers! <3 Amy

I miss this. 

My hubby and I both love Star Wars. For my birthday this year, my in-laws got me these sweet cookie cutters. Sadly, I got them *just* after I sent James his Star Wars themed Valentine's Day box. I found Star Wars valentines. My favorite is the one with C-3PO that says "Be my counterpart!" Boxes take at least 6 days to get there if the weather is good.. so I haven't sent cookies because I figured they would be kind of old by the time they got there. I might make an exception for these star wars ones though. This is our second Valentine's Day in a row apart. Last year, he was away at IBOLC. Oh well. I've decided to not be bitter about it. We normally weren't much into celebrating it anyway but we decided today online that next year (assuming that we are together!) we will. Happy Valentine's Day and may the force be with you! -Amy

Had to jump on this bandwagon!  Endorphins. Sunday afternoon after a long run, guiltlessly enjoying my berry-weis. Being off the grid. Whoever needs to call me can wait.  Sweet running clothes. Eating more food. Keeping a sexy runner body.  Running in sync with an awesome song. Running in the quiet. The feeling of accomplishment after making that goal. It makes my hubby proud of me. :)  therunchat.com

This is almost not Wednesday anymore, but I remembered in time. Another week has gone by, thank goodness. Last week was crazy, but I want to jump back in and stay consistent with these. Alright, maybe it's not so much the picture that makes me happy, but these ridiculously awesome socks. I love socks. My hubby goes these for me. And they match my ranger shorts. Heck yes. Took this out on the lake on the winter retreat this weekend.  Gnite loves, Amy

I get the Runner's World quote of the day. I used to read it every day. Now I occasionally read it and usually just delete it. Bad, I know. I did read today's though. "As runners we are pretty adept at changing our pace, alternating our route, and overcoming obstacles. We train ourselves, literally, to find some sort of comfort in the midst of our discomfort. Our training serves us well in every area of our lives. " -Kristin Armstrong, Welcome, Mile Markers blog, Runner's World.com  I feel like that's a description of deployment. Trying to find comfort in the midst of a continuous discomfort. Maybe that's why running is so therapeutic for some of us with spouses overseas.  I went on a winter retreat this weekend with our church's high schoolers. It was pretty fun. My birthday was over the weekend and I was kind of expecting a call from my hubby. However, we got there and my cell had no reception. I was kind of sad about that, but I fig...

I'll tell you a secret.. my birthday is coming up! My mom got me an early birthday present. I also got a new camera from my hubby! I used it to take the photo above. If you look back at some of my most recent posts, you can see a line going through the pics. That means the sensor was starting to die. So now I have a working camera! After a really hard start to the week , it's nice that things are starting to calm down. I'm just still praising God for what happened.  I feel a little behind in the week, because we kind of lost an entire two days, but of course we're so happy with the happy ending and that life can go on. Also. I signed up for the Chicago Marathon yesterday. Omygoodness. I signed up pretty late at night and then woke up this morning with this feeling of.. "WHAT did I just do last night?" Oh yeah.. just signed up for my first marathon. Hitting the "submit" button was actually pretty scary. I'm committed now. One of my goals ...