My Dad recently bought a little cabin out in the Hoosier National and there are awesome trails to run literally right out the front door. So we took the kids down for the day and one of my sisters and her family came out. The kids played all day, we even took them on a little hike- probably about a mile and a half, and they all did great.

My mom agreed to watch our boys so Glenn and I could head out for a run for an hour and it felt so great. The best word I can find to describe running through those woods with no children in site is FREEDOM. I was seriously so happy running on those trails. All day I was riding some high. Can we just all feel like that everyday? We’re hoping to make this a regular thing over the summer.

Straight up huffing and puffing up those hills: 

Picture below taken courtesy of Marshall.  

I had a pretty great week of running and workouts last week. Probably my most solid week since I had Russ. The sinus infection I recently had put me out from doing anything for 10 days. 10 days. Like, what? I finally ended up at the Doctor and had to get an antibiotic to kick it to the curb.

Here’s what last week looked like: 

Monday: 5 Mi Easy outside with friends

Tuesday: 6 Mi Total on TM with 3 X 1 Mi @ 6:45-6:50, quarter mile walk/jog between. Felt strong.

Wednesday: 6.5 Mi Easy on some rolling TM hills

Thursday: 45 Min Spin Class

Friday: 11 Miles Outside (8 easy, 3 @ a tempo effort… which landed me at 8:00, 8:00, 7:40) That effort felt much harder than the times were telling me. What can you do. (Answer is: Keep Working)

Saturday: 1250 swim. (with 5 X 50 meters hard in the middle.) I’m a weenie… I should have done two sets of that.

Sunday: 5.5 miles with the whole family. I pushed Louis in the single stroller

And now Glenn wants me to pick out a race- some 5Ks to test my fitness. Oh man, I’m not sure I’m ready for that. I do think this week I will give myself a trial 5K on my own though. I’m guessing I’ll be able to go out around 7:00 pace and knock it down to 6:40, we’ll see what I can hang on to though. I’ll likely just do it on the treadmill for some speed work this week. I’m guessing it will be tomorrow. I’m still a little sore from the trails and the plyometric lunges I did on Monday. I think we have decided I will focus on running a strong Mini Marathon though. Doubt it will be a PR, but looking for a solid race!

I do know one thing though- I want to race like Shelby Houlihan this year. (Maybe not as fast as her though….) She inspired me a lot on her podcast episode when she talked about being excited to race and rather than being nervous, enjoying the benefits of the hard work she put in all season!

GIVEAWAY WINNER: 

I celebrated my 50th episode of the podcast with a fun giveaway with NOW Foods, Erica Sara Designs & Good Luck Box! Since the rafflecopter giveaway was only allowing me to add entries of people who were on twitter- I added an Instagram piece to it. To make it fair so that every entry was included- I put all of the rafflecopter entries AND all of the IG entries and a spreadsheet and picked it at random.

Who wants to hear who the winner is? 

Congratulations:

Jessie B. Runs2Work for winning! I’ll be in touch to hook you up with your goodies!

And THANK YOU Erica Sara Desgins, NOW Foods and Good Luck Box for helping celebrate this milestone with us!

Are you caught up on the latest episode of I’ll Have Another with Carrie Tollefson?

Carrie was so much fun to chat with! Check it out and share it with a friend.

The post Pick a Race? appeared first on Lindsey Hein.

Turns out they’re a lot like me. Their mission in life is to “Live your Film” – if someone were talking a video of your life right now- what would it look like? Would you want to share it with the world? When I think of what they stand for I think- Work hard, get your hands dirty and have fun.

I joined the Team Film in the summer, I knew it wasn’t a time in my life where I’d be able to make it to a lot of socials and events, but I couldn’t help myself from joining because I love everything they stand for.

SOOOO, what is my point here. These fabulous women are hosting The Peace, Love Film 4K coming up THIS SUNDAY, November 2nd at 1pm in Carmel, benefitting the Center of Wellness for Urban Women. I know, I know Monumental is Saturday. And you know my family is alway all over Monumental- but we will be at this race too. It’s just a 4K- even if you run the full, you can come out and WALK the 4K… it will help with recovery. Seriously. The worst thing you can do recovering from a marathon is not move around.

I’m here to give away a FREE ENTRY to the race- you know you wanna. They have some really awesome prizes & giveaways lined up for the event as well!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I’ll announce a winner for the race giveaway this Friday. And if you don’t win the give away- you should go ahead and do the race anyway, because it’s going to be fun!

Here are a few more fun contests Team Film has going on: 

Facebook Contest: going on through Friday on Facebook- you just SHARE this post about the Peace Love Film 4K run/walk event and your name will be entered into a drawing on Halloween for our new smokin’ hot winter hat. Share the love–it’s for a good cause. Just sayin’.

Twitter Contest: going through Friday- RT this tweet about the Peace Love Film 4K run/walk event to be entered to win this awesome knit hat. Dude I love that hat.

 PEACE OUT!

The post Peace Love Film 4K GIVEAWAY! appeared first on Lindsey Hein.

Let’s hear a follow up from here- shall we?

I ran my first marathon in February. Going into the race, I knew it would be my one and only and I knew I would finish under 4:30 (my goal was 4:20).  Turns out, I finished the last 3 miles in the rain and crossed the finish line at 4:44, slightly disappointed and knowing that it wouldn’t be my only one. 

There were several things that I would call positives and negatives from the race.  I ran with my friend Ally for the first 17 miles and was really excited about seeing my family at mile 16. The community support was absolutely amazing.

As for the negatives- I was not used to the higher temperature and humidity that day. Training through the winter, I was used to running in cold gear- not capris and a tank top!  As I said earlier, I ran the last 3 miles in the rain (they actually ended pulling people off the course because of lightning).  The finish line experience was also washed out due to the rain- I was more concerned about getting my sons out of the rain than really celebrating the accomplishment of just running 26.2 miles!

Two weeks later I ran with a vengeance and was much happier as I PR’d in a half marathon with 1:59!

Fast forward a couple months and my disappointment still lingers, but I am very proud of how far I have come since I started my weight loss journey.  Never did I think that I would be a marathon runner and an inspiration to people with 25, 50, 100+ pounds to lose.

Another big part of my story is, I am now getting ready to have skin removal surgery.  Since I’ve lost 150 lbs, excess abdominal skin is a major issue and causes me to be extremely self-conscious.  Even though I will get rashes when I run if I don’t wear compression gear, this is considered completely elective surgery at pretty hefty price.

This past year, I also made the decision to stay home with our two boys. A lot of big life changes going on around here! Knowing that we are going from a dual-income household to a single one, I was looking for and praying about something that would help add to our income a little without taking away a lot of time with my boys.

A friend of mine was raising money for cancer research and invited me to a Jamberry Nails party.  They are heat-activated vinyl nail wraps that come in  300+ designs and last 2-3 weeks on fingernails and 4-6 weeks on toes.  Being that I had lost a few toenails in marathon training, I needed something to make my pedicure look good!  I soon found that I loved the product and became a consultant.

Kassi is doing a giveaway for one lucky winner to choose a design of their choice to be mailed right to their door!  

To enter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can follow Kassi’s business on her Facebook page: facebook.com/jamberrykassio

Order online: kassio.jamberrynails.net

Cheers to Kassi & the journey she has been on and where she will go. I am so happy to support her and am excited for what’s next for her and her family. Help me support her & sign up for the giveaway. I can’t wait to try them myself!

The post Update on Kassi + Jamberry Nail Giveaway! appeared first on Lindsey Hein.