Energy Bits Winner & Some Running Updates

First of all, here’s the important stuff:

The winner of the Energy Bits sample pack is……Esteban! I hope you like the Energy Bits as much as I do! If you didn’t win this time around, don’t forget that there is another chance to win Energy Bits or one of the other awesome prizes in the Winter 100 Challenge.

Speaking of Energy Bits, I am now an Energy Bits Ambassador.  What does that mean you ask? It means that I am going to help spread the word about these fantastic little bits of goodness.  I would never advocate for a product I didn’t believe in so the fact that I want to share my love of Energy Bits says a lot .  I recently got my first pouch of bits after my sample pack ran out.

Bits of goodness just waiting to power me through a run

Taking these before my morning runs has really made a difference in my energy level.  It’s not the same as the jittery energy I get from coffee before I run.  It’s more of a sustained boost that keeps me going.  I was wondering just what it is about the Energy Bits that make me feel better and lucky for me, they included this in my shipment:

Now it makes sense

My return to running has been going much better than I had thought it would.  I’m still trying to be careful not to overdo it as I rebuild my mileage, but I’m already seeing improvements.  It took a VERY long time for me to see any improvement when I returned to running after I had Zain so I’m feeling pretty good about things this time around.

I’ve been sticking with running 4 days a week so far, but this week, it will end up being 5 days of running.  I’m okay with that because my mileage is pretty low still (less than 20 miles per week).  I’m running 3-5 miles per run.  This weekend, my “long run” will be 6 miles.  Just for comparison’s sake, let’s see what I was doing this time last year:

22 freaking miles!

It’s pretty crazy that a year ago I ran 22 miles.  A 6 mile long run would have been nothing for me then.  And that pace? Um yeah, I’m far from that right now for my shortest runs.  On my first few runs back, I was averaging 11:30-12 minute miles.  There’s nothing wrong with that pace range, but I worked hard to get to a place where I was faster (fast for me!) before I got pregnant so seeing those numbers gets to me sometimes.  With every run, I’ve been feeling stronger though.  I’m working on chipping away at those numbers I don’t like to see on my Garmin.

This is my third full week back to running and my pace is now down to about a 10:30-10:45 average.  Hopefully, in a few more weeks, I can try to break that 10 minute mark.  I haven’t done any speedwork just yet because I want to wait until I feel a little stronger.  One thing I haven’t been shying away from is hills.  My first few runs, I tried to run the flattest course I could, but that’s pretty hard because I live in a hilly neighborhood.  Now, I’ve been seeking out the biggest hills and even throwing in hill repeats when I can.  As cheesy as it sounds, I know running those hills will make me stronger.

Since I’m feeling pretty good about my running, I’m excited to announce I signed up for my first race of the year! I’ll be running the More Fitness Half Marathon in NYC on April 14.  I’m not looking for a PR by any means.  I just want to enjoy running in NYC because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.  I’m running with my cousin so I think it will be a really fun race.

My ankle has been feeling great.  Sometimes it feels a little bit tight as a start my run, but it doesn’t hurt.  I’m continuing to be stubborn about my knee and I haven’t gotten it checked out or looked into PT about it yet.  The thing is that it’s hard to commit to PT right now when I have 2 little ones at home so I’m trying to do some exercises on my own first to see if that helps.  I’m a master Googler when I have any ailment so I already found a pretty good strength routine that I’ve been doing for a little over a week now.  Call me crazy, but I think it’s helping.  My knee is still achy, BUT it’s less achy than it was a couple weeks ago.  If it doesn’t improve more over the next couple weeks, then I will definitely look into getting professional help, I promise .

Don’t forget that the Winter 100 Challenge ends on the 28th!

Happy Running!

{Energy Bits winner was chosen at random using random.org}