Love me some Life

Whew. I can not believe I am sitting here with time to even consider writing a post. Life has been CRAZY for lack of a better term. Lucky for me, within the craziness, I have been to the gym almost every day since my last post. Yay for me! 

A moment of my crazy life captured. 

Summer is on its way and will not wait for me to get my act together, so I have had to get at my goals and persevere. I have recently started a new training for an upcoming 10K sometime in June. 16 weeks seems like a long training, but this time around I have been mainly focusing on speed work. My lungs feel great, despite my two month break from running. However, my body is kicking me for ignoring what it needed so badly. Bummer!

 41 weeks, 8 days until I run a marathon. You're kidding. Jessica Ritz is running a marathon. It still hasn't sunk in. I know my body can handle it, but training my mind is going to be far more complex. I am currently training my body to run at a 11:40-12:15 (mile) pace. Slow, but this is a pace I feel comfortable going miles on end at. I will probably end up bumping my marathon training to 12:30 pace. Anyways, 3 training runs in and my body is FEELING it. I refuse to allow myself to have that long of a slump again.

Running is hard-HARD. I honestly believe that God made people that are built for running, if you will, and those like myself who try desperately to obtain the title of "Runner," but just never will never quite fit the total title. Regardless, I have become my own "Runner," and literally work my a^% off to reach my running goals. 

Last week went really well, Monday being my first training run. I was able to maintain an 11:04 mile pace for 2.27 miles-go me! I squeezed in an "extra" run on Wednesday, only 1.5 miles at 11:02 pace. On Valentine's, since I am evidently not loved by any man (yet!), I hit the gym to work on loving myself.  3.36 miles at 11:28 pace. Slower, but still steady. Consistency, consistency, CONSISTENCY. What wasn't supposed to be my last run for the week, but ended up being so was a 2.13 mile run at 11:24 pace. 

After going out tonight for dinner, I pushed myself to get out the door and hit the gym. I have been doing weight training lately and a lot of work with my own body weight. WHAT a difference. I lost about 2.7 pounds last week which was a huge surprise. I have been shoveling food like it's going away forever. I always seem to "justify" what I eat-even if it makes me feel terrible after. I guess I feel like it's "okay" for me to eat whatever I please when I get in a good workout-WRONG. To lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. Plain and simple.

I was able to get out this morning and shop the sales. For me, it's important that I stock the fridge and pantry with easy to grab fruits and veggies. I am all about convenience. Sad, but true. Tomorrow is an easy 4 mile run. I think I may have a mild case of Tennis elbow so I want to keep my arm movements steady and smooth on my run tomorrow. I think I might hit the trail, 40+ minutes on the treadmill doesn't sound appealing to me. Plus, it would be great to get Coop out and about to run off some of that energy. 4 days of weekend should happen more often! Enjoy!

Cooper in action.