Our Trip to Maui

After the half marathon, we literally returned home to fly out the next morning to Maui. 

From home it's a one hour flight to Seattle, an hour lay over, and an additional 6 hour flight. But with the lay over, it was only 11am when we arrived. Got our car and headed to the hotel. 

And because the hotel looked like it was straight out of a magazine, I made you a faux magazine spread of it. And, within minutes we saw a lizard, just crawling around... See the third mag' spread below. 

After checking into the resort we headed to lunch. After asking some locals about dinner decided on a restraunt called MALA, where the food was incredible, the staff amazing, and right off the shore we saw our first six, HUGE, sea turtles. 

The rest of the night we enjoyed the resort, the pools, the poolside bar, the cabana and the ocean... 

Let me tell you, this place is every bit the hype you hear. It's stunning. It's relaxing. It's paradise. 

Day two, we headed over to the Pacific Whale Foundation, which was pretty cool, as far as aquariums go. The money they raise their goes to protect the whales and the environment, which is cool in itself. 

(This is the closest we got to swimming with sharks.) That afternoon we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out by the pool/ocean... 

Bill and I may have  had a few too many Mai tai's, made friends with some really cool strangers and invited them back to our room... The following morning these three pics were on my phone.

Wednesday morning Bill was dying... Like super, super cannot get outif bed, or walk, or eat without getting violently sick... So while he slept it off, I spent the morning reading a great book in a cabana, eating a terrific breakfast, drinking coffee and watching the ocean. 

When Bill got to feeling a little better and could hold down some food, we headed out to the Whalers Village. 

We ate at a terrific restaurant, Lahanis. Their ahi was terrific, right on the ocean, afterward a giant rainbow was over the village. 

Then we walked the beach. 

Then headed back to the resort for the sunset and more oceanside relaxation. 

The following morning we headed out to go snorkeling. 

The first stop was Molokini which is a crater, in the middle of the ocean, covered in coral, and filled with fish. My first time snorkeling was amazing. Bills experience involved a lot of inhalation of salt water. 

The second stop was over a coral garden with turtles. Again, it was just amazing to see. The fish was to right by you, not alarmed at all. Incredible. I would do this again, a million times over, Bill probably would prefer to never wear a snorkeling mask again. 

We went to Honu the last night for dinner, another local restaurant tucked back on a side street, seriously amazing food. Headed back for one more night in the pools, relaxed and watched the ocean. This place is truly paradise. 

CDA (half...) Marathon Recap

Now... To be clear, my personal experience should not make or break your view of the CDA Marathon... This just was not my day..

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Packet Pickup
Packet pickup is the day before. No line at all, you find your name on the list outside the "expo", walk in, give them your bib number, confirm your name and swipe your bib. Boom. Done. 

Expo
Big disappointment. Literally around ten booths, nothing spectacular... Didn't even look around or buy a single thing, which is huge considering how much gear there is and how I think I need to check all if it out. Although, we did have a good time in CDA with the girlies at a quaint little bar and grill called "Crickets", go food, Bill and I shared a heaping nacho and the beef was shredded rather than ground which make me happy. And that night we met up withy girl, Mandy, and her family, husband and adorable 9 month old little girl. We went to Seasons, and again the food was great, I had some seriously delicious mahi tacos. 

Prep
No wine this week. Tons of water. No calorie counting. Nothing crazy to eat. Plenty of sleep. Taper all week (which makes me a super grouch, so I do owe Bill an apology). Plenty of sleep the night before. Packed overnight oats, Nuun tablets and carried my water bottle more than my purse. :) 

Gear
-Mizuno Wave Prophecy 3's, as usual, these shoes are awesome, even though my feet suck... More on that in a sec.

-Mizuno also sent me cool running tank (snugger than my preference to run in, but had a super handy little pocket on the back for gels, chews & my Chapstick, was modest on the neckline which made me happy and has built in boob support 😊) and a cool white visor which worked great instead of my sunglasses. 

-OGIO 9.0 bag is about the coolest bag out there, I use it to carry all my running stuff, in tons of perfect pockets and keep my shoes away from my white gear (this bag also has a terrific drying area that zips out and a helmet area, would be awesome as a triathlon bag)

-OGIO backpack to carry my stuff for after the race, compression socks, dry clean clothes, Tylenol... 

- The Brooks running jacket Bill bought me at the Bloomsday Expo  

- Drymax Hyper Thin Mini Socks
- Random running capris
- Under Armour sports bra (learned my lesson at Bloomsday that this does indeed matter)
-Bill's Bose Earbuds, my iPhone and case that also holds my ID and a debit card

- My Garmin

Volunteers/Fluids/Spectators/Entertainment/Post Race
Good amount of volunteers and fuel/water stations. They had Hammer gels which I prefer to my own, so I was happy about that. Spectators were good in town, scarce the further you ran out. Zero entertainment which was fine considering I had my music. Post race was set up well but nothing spectacular. 

The Actual Race

Well I knew going into this race that my foot had a stress fracture. I taped it up, took enough Tylenol and Ibuprofen to put down a horse and decided that I would do my best and hope to not cause more harm to my foot. The entire race course was on roads, which suprised me, as I assumed it would be on the trail. Miles 1-5 went well, running around 8:30-9:00 miles, that's when we hit the hills... I am not a great hill runner to start with but my lungs felt good, I slowed my speed and just tried to stay consistent, dropped down to about 9:30 miles, and I was okay with that. The first steep down hill is when things started falling apart, because of where the fracture is, the downhill strike of my foot was right were it hurt, and with every step it hurt worse. I decided to try to turn my foot out towards the right to take the impact of the strike on the outside of my foot which did help and fell back to 10 minute miles, and I thought to myself 'take your time, just finish'. At the turn around (7.5 miles-ish) I was hurting, a lot, and heading right back into the hills... I went through a water station around 10 miles and could hardly walk and knew this was not going to end well. By then, the pain in my foot was a burning sensation, and radiating out into the whole pad of my foot and running at an angle was wrecking havoc on my ankle. At mile 11, my pace was shit, at around 11 min/miles. At this point I text Bill, 'I'm dying'. I see a race volunteer and ask if I drop to the half, if I am DQ'd. He said no, that I would just need to get ahold of the race folks. Then I text Bill to come, that my 26.2 just turned into a 13.1. Finished the half, very slowly, but was happy I finished at all. It was certainly touch and go. Watched Mandy cross the finish line, which was cool. Afterward, iced it immediately, put on some stuff June sent, pulled on my compression socks and took more ibuprofen. My ankle was completely black and blue already. We went to dinner with my sister, Lily and stepdad, all the kiddos, and Mandy and her family. Had some delicious sushi and wine. Enjoyed what had done, rather than focusing on what I hadn't. Thinking over my foot healing up plan... The thought of rest isn't my favorite plan. 

Overall
Beautiful scenery. Good overall race. Difficult with the hills. 

Liebster Award

Thanks to a fellow blogger Ilsay Escobar over at http://fitensity.blogspot.com/ I was nominated for a Liebster Award!! 

What is Liebster Award you say?

The Liebster Award is awarded to new and upcoming blogs by other bloggers. It is to help the nominated bloggers be introduced to other readers and gain an audience. By receiving this award, the blog receiving it must pay it forward and introduce 10 new blogs as well! Please link the nominators blog in your blog about being nominated, answer the ten questions below the nomination list, and make up ten for your nominees!

1. Who is your number one inspiration?  My kids, for so many reasons. But primarily because I want them to be raised feeling like fitness is an amazing experience. Whether it's running, softball, gymnastics or any other sport, I want them to find a healthy outlet and persue it. 
   

   
   
2. What is your favorite workout to do? Running. I love to just pull on my shoes, put in my earbuds and find myself. 
   
3. When did you start blogging? Almost a year ago, I read blogs about running all the time and decided this would be fun. 
4. Where is your favorite place to go run? On the levee near my home. It's gorgeous. And I'm lucky to have it. 
   
5. Why are you so awesome? Ha. I'm not but I want my girls to think I am! 
6. What is your favorite meal to make? If it is a post you have made on your blog, link it! Overnight Oats! http://noteworthyrunning.blogspot.com/2014/01/overnight-oats.html?m=1
7. What is your favorite quote? Be the change you wish to see in the world. -Ghandi
8. What did you want to be when you were a kid? A marine biologist. If I could afford to stop working, move my family and attend school, I still would want to do this. 
9. What is your real life job? I am a social worker in a skilled nursing & rehab facility, and I do love my job. 
   
10. Will you continue your active lifestyle even as you get older? Until I can't anymore!!

My nominees:

1. Dani @ weightoffmyshoulders.com

2. Karen @ runwithk.com

3. Holly @ lifeatthequarry.com

4. Alicen @ formerfitnessflunky.com

5. Amanda @ theroadtoahealthylife.com

6. Karen @ karenlovestorun.com

7. Torry @ notanotherpaleoblog.com

8. Gabriella @ peacesweatlove.com

9. Sandra @ promisetodad.wordpress.com

Your questions:

1. What inspired your fitness journey?

2. When do you prefer to workout, morning, noon, night?

3. What's your favorite pre-workout meal?

4. How much planning to you put into your fitness routine?

5. What is at the top of your bucket list for fitness?

6. What is the greatest thing you have gotten out of fitness?

7. Do you feel like fitness has change the person you are other than physically?

8. Do you do other sports?

9. What is your ultimate fitness goal?

10. What is your number one fitness pet peeve?

X-Ray reveals...

I love this quote for so many reasons... And mainly now because, well, my foot is fractured... Last August I wrote about thinking my foot had a stress fracture, here, but after running on it for several months without further injury had summed it up to something else... Arthritis, said the chiropractor. Bone spur, said he physical therapist. Plantar fasciitis, said a fellow runner. Well with this Sunday finally being the CDA Marathon, I went to every doctor I could think of for a cortisone shot, even having co-workers help with trying to get this arranged, but to no avail. Finally, I contacted my primary care doctor, he said he would only do the shot if I would FINALLY get the x-ray... Ignorance could no longer be bliss... There you have it, he moment of truth... So yesterday afernoon, after spending the day working at home with a sick kid, went and got the x-ray. Today, got the call with the results, it is indeed a stress fracture. So no shot is going to help. Running will make it worse and could lead to a much worse break and healing takes 6-8 weeks of reducing the load, ie no running... Do I plan to stop running? No. Do I plan to skip the marathon this weekend? No. 

What am I going to do? No idea... I continue to run on this fracture and it continues to get worse and even causing more stress fractures in the foot. Eventually the foot bones break, and that is a year off of running. But the only treatment is rest... And right now, it is 19.5 weeks until the Portland Marathon. Right now I have eight other runs that I want to run before Portland... Not to mention a pretty significant desire to CrossFit again... 

Is it totally unrealistic to plan to race all the races and plan for Portland to be my last run and take 8 weeks then? Will my foot last that long? Is it worth the risk? Too many questions. Not enough answers...

Monday in Pictures!

(I need to learn to make my coffee smile at me...)

(Yoga and some strength training, felt terrific!!!)

(This Blue Heron flew on and off the shore my whole way back this morning, way cool.)

(God! He's amazing!!!)

(Walk with my girlies and Kimbo.)

(Yum!)

(Then tackled this beast.... Only take 1 and already 2 sets of weed eater blades down... I'll post an after, after...)

CDA Marathon Plan!!

First, hydrate. Yes, this week will be filled with lemon infused water, even downloaded a silly little app to track my water. Super Nerd. And, no wine all week.... My thought process on this is that the wins dehydrates me, which defeats the water drinking I'll be focused on. Who really knows though, this is just an assumption. 

Second, make a packing checklist:

Overnight Oats

Pre-cut Lemons

Pre-Workout

Water Bottle

Nuun Tablets

Gels

Chews

Garmin & Charger

Headband & Hat (depending on weather)

Hair Tie

FlipBelt

Ear Buds

iPhone & Charger

(Remember cash & ID in phone for race)

Phone Arm Band

Sunglasses

Tylenol

Socks

Grey Capris

Long Sleeve UA shirt

Mommy Needs a Run Tee

UA Tank

UA Sports Bra

Compression Socks

Mizunos!!!!

New Running Jacket

Rock Tape

Bio-Freeze

Deep Blue

Chapstick

Hand Water Bottle

Flip Flops

UA Sweats

Cotton Sports Bra

UA Sweatshirt

Lunch Pail

Third, this weeks plan:

Monday: Easy 5 mile loop

Tuesday:  Rest

Wednesday:  Easy 4 mile loop

Thursday:  Easy 4 mile loop

Friday:  Easy 3 mile loop

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: MARATHON!!!!!