Just Plodding Along

First off. I won some free stuff from Chocolate Milk. While I had my fingers crossed for a lifetime supply of the stuff, I ended up with a gift card to use at their online store. Yay for sweepstakes and yay for winning! Tote bag Sweatshirt jacket  Thanks to Chocolate Milk and the nice lady who deals with special people such as myself when they realize a month after they got a notification email that they had won that their code had not come via email. When in fact it had but had been eaten by the my spam folder so she had to go through hoops to resend me the code. Other stuff that came in the mail. These little pretty's. And by little I mean they come out of the bag barbie size but due to the high concentration of unicorn hair involved in the making they fit every time.  #Magicpants Due to the sweet coupon code I came upon I got two pairs for the price of one and free shipping. For those of you who may not know Aspaeris Pivot Shorts help you keep muscle...

Kate over at Run with Kate  highlighted me for a Liebster Award! Thanks Kate. According to her blog which I am copying because I am all original all the time the Liebster award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, endearing and welcome. None of these adjectives apply to me when I am extremely hungry or tired.....but hopefully at other times. Rules for the award: 1) Each person must post 11 things about  themselves 2) Then answer the questions the tagger sent for them, plus create 11 questions for the people they've tagged to answer. 3) Choose 11 people and link them in your post. 4) Notify the people you have tagged. 5) No tag backs. Two thumbs up for random facts about me you did not want to know My 11 things: 1.    My favorite food is bananas followed by ice cream. Or put them together= heaven. 2. People wh...

Things around here have been a little crazy. I have been offered and accepted a job in Illinois....which is in fact not in Arizona so that means moving cross country which equals full scale moving madness and a slight amount of panic. In the past two days we have packed up part of our house, held a yard sale, dropped stuffed off at goodwill and found stuff at the back of closets that we don't remember having. We might be a little bit excited for our new adventure, just a bit. Does anyone else notice how things must get super messy and out of control before they can get organized or is that just me being crazy? The house looks like it threw up or exploded or something but is slowly getting under control. Running stuff boxed up- Goodbye year supply of Nuun, see you in Illinois We haven't really figured out a place to live, or how exactly we are going to get all our stuff there or when exactly I am starting my new job. What I have figured out. FALL RACE SCHEDULE. You know ...

Whelp today I turn 29. So that is awesome I guess. I have exactly one year to get in 13 more half marathons. TICK TOCK. I also need to start thinking about a marathon for real, as in which one I want to do for my 30th birthday. I gotta say it has been a great start. Birthday highlights: Waking up to flowers and mini-cupcakes= breakfast of champions Best card ever from my best friend New running skirt! I am gonna kill the best dressed category at my next half Wait what do you mean there is no best dressed category.....     Birthday pig cookie jar, it is so cute! So I smell like something other than sweat New shoes...are they not just the best color ever! Love that new shoe smell What is a girl to do if she can't run....why shop of course! Can not wait to spend this! Thank you everyone for the birthday boxes and birthday cards! I feel very loved and send all the love back at ya! The other reason I am excited it is my birthday.....t...

I can run faster than I thought. Yesterday was otherwise known as the first 5k I have done in three years. My main goal was to get under 30 minutes and I did. Official time 27:51, Garmin time 27:39 average of 8:55 a mile. Whoop. I was pretty dang excited for myself. I thought for a second that I might have placed in my age group because the girl who came in 20 seconds after me placed in her age group, but no. My age group was full of tall, willowy, speedy people running it in 20 minutes. Dang. I placed 7th in my age group. Overall this race was a lot of fun. It was fun to do a race where I knew it would be over quickly unlike half marathons, 5ks can hurt early on and no big deal because as long as you don't pass out you can stop moving in about 30 minutes. The course was a flat loop along a dirt road and on grass and was extremely muddy. About half way through my feet got really heavy with all the mud stuck on my shoes until the giant clumps started flying off onc...

First 5K in three years tomorrow going down tomorrow. For some reason I am a little nervous. I think it is the fact that I am slow and this is a small race so the potential to be last could technically be a reality. Plus it has been pouring rain out so this dirt road/ trail race could get interesting. Goals: 1) Don't die, or more specifically don't take off at top speed during the first mile and then die for the next 2.1. It would be good to build some speed over the three miles. Start reasonable and end quickly. Most likely what will happen: I will go out too fast and then try to maintain and slow down over the three miles . 2) Don't make whatever mystery pain that has popped up in my right leg over the last few days worse. Focus on form, run light, and slow down if needed. I can't even tell you how annoyed I am with this 'injury' feeling right now 3) Aim for under 30 minutes. 4) If feeling sassy aim for under 28. 5) Actually wake up on time to mak...

Today I had one goal. GOAL: Run to the top of the hill that I always stop and walk on. And you know what I did. I freakin ran it. Bam and might have done a happy little jig at the top of it (here is hoping it was too early for anyone to be watching). I upped my hill running workout by one mile and it felt pretty good. Once I conquered the hill I was kind of unstoppable because I felt like a bad ass. I also saw two tarantulas and a pack of coyotes so the feeling of nature being hostile was there and may have resulted in my running a little faster back to my car. Running in the desert....it is so fun? I plugged in my garmin to provide you all with the amazing graphic displayed above and started checking out my other workouts (I normally only look at my half marathons unless I feel I have done something super impressive like conquer the Biggest Hill in the World ). Guess what I found- a progression run that I didn't even try to do Hey so that is cool. I like it when a great ...

Last week was kind of not great in terms of cross training: 1 day of zumba and one day of yoga. The lure of the couch after work is strong. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, when get home head straight to workout clothes. Even so I ran 28.5 miles last week including my fastest mile in a long time 8:46. #RWStreakExtreme is going strong. On the Agenda for this week: Mon: 1 mile plus xtrain of some kind (maybe strength) Tues: 4 miles easy and yoga Wed: 7 hilly miles and yoga Thurs: 1 mile and xtrain Friday: 6 miles with 2 at a faster tempo Saturday: Breeze in the Trees 5K sub 30 minute attempt. Woot Woot Sunday: LSD 13 miles + napping Fun Fact: D bought me an iphone. Whooeeee I immediately had to obtain an otterbox case because it is not if but when will I drop it. So this is what I will be doing with my free time.  Yesterday D and I celebrated our Anniversary by going to The Melting Pot where I ignored D and played with my new iphone (I had to check in ...

Hey D you are fun! Lets go for 6 more. Happy Anniversary. Love you!

1) You may have noticed a big ole Sweat Pink button to the right, that is because I am now a sweat pink ambassador . That means I get to be part of a super fun healthy community and meet other people interested in fitness and hopefully inspire some myself. I have already met some inspiring people and am excited to meet more! Plus their mission statement states "We believe that kicking ass is best done in pretty shoes" and you all know I love me some shoes. Speaking of shoes 2) These came in the mail yesterday Mmmm gotta love that new shoe smell- I think pink laces will go well in these! I know, I know you all are probably like but you just got some new running shoes . And I did I got some Saucony pro grids. And they suck I want to be loyal. You and me Saucony, we have had a lot of really great miles. But whatever you have done to the newer version of your shoes, or perhaps my feet have just changed, it is just not working. It's not you it's me, or maybe...

First off today was 7/11 which meant FREE SLURPEE. And I happen to live by two Slurpee meccas so I stopped on my way to work. That is right 8am Slurpee run. Though it was tiny, the sugar free strawberry banana hit the spot after 6 hilly miles this morning. In other food news our neighbor showed up at our door with homemade tarts yesterday, waltzed in, placed them in the fridge and waltzed out. So that was awesome. On to the sad times.  I have heard great things about Oiselle and am on the hunt for the perfect running shorts so I ordered some rogas and today I opened the mail to find  I danced back from the mailbox with visions of 20 mile tempo runs (I have never done a 20 mile tempo run and I have no intention of doing one in the near future but that was my fantasy) with magic shorts. Visions of trails and fields to frolic through a la The Sound of Music (singing optional). And look at them. They are cute and they feel so good. And they fit my ...