What. A. Weekend.

I signed up for my first half marathon since my knee surgery back in December – unfortunately, runners knee knocked me out for 2 months, and I was unable to train. Luckily I was able to switch to the quarter marathon for the same race – Cap City – and get in a little bit of training. and guess what – I PR’ed! I don’t know how PRs work after a knee surgery, since you are pretty much starting over from scratch, but this race was definitely the fastest I have been able to run in a few years (for this distance). My goal was to run under 53 minutes – and I ended up running 53:17 (8:08 pace), which isn’t too horrible. I felt great, pushed myself and would not have done anything differently! This is without a lot of training – I mostly did yoga and ran 1-3 times a week, so I can’t even imagine how much faster I would have been if I actually trained the way I should have 😉 I was also super motivated by my coworker, Whitney, who I ran with for the first 5 miles. She was a rockstar and beat her PR by 8 minutes!

Running uphill, legs burning, almost to the finish line!

Next up: time off. I am going to be taking some time to strengthen my hips & work with a physical therapist so I don’t keep having this knee pain. I taped my knee to tide me over while training for the race, but I can’t do that forever. Once I feel a little stronger, I’ll start doing a few 5k’s and build my way up for the Disney half in January!

So let’s talk Race day essentials: What do you wear? What do you eat before? What do you eat after?

What I wore:

• Shorts & Sports Bra
• Balega Socks
• Running Shoes
• Bib

I dressed 15 degrees warmer than the start temperature (55 degrees) and it was PERFECT. By the time I finished, I wasn’t drenched in my own sweat and the weather was sunny & warm!

What I ate: 

• Wake up, drink half a liter of water + a little coffee
• Eat half a cup of oatmeal + half a banana 2 hours before the race start time
• Finish the banana 1-1.5 hours before race starts + a little bit of a protein bar
• Gu gel with extra caffeine 15 minutes before the race
• Finish protein bar after race

I took some gu gummies with me for an emergency, but I ended up not needed them. I tested out what to eat at my 10k last weekend, and i figured I needed some more food before running – so this was a little bit of a test run for me, and it ended up being perfect for my race (thanks for the oatmeal suggestion, Nikki!).

Enjoying my post-race champagne!

2 PR’s = 2 Happy girls!

In other news – I got a blog makeover!!! My amazing coworker Colleen redesigned my site header & helped organize the navigation of my site to better match my “yogi” theme. And I am in LOVE! She is an absolute blog guru – I consult her with any type of social media questions I have. She is definitely an up-an coming blogger to look out for – and her beauty tips are spot on (she recommended rose-hip oil to clear up the eczema on my face.. she is my beauty expert!) You can check her out here 🙂

And last but not least… I will officially be certified to teach power yoga in 3 weeks! Unfortunately, not in studios until I finish my 200 RYT training in the fall, buuuuut it’s a start! And my friends are going to love me for all of the free yoga classes I’ll be having in my home/gym 😉

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!