Just Plodding Along

This Christmas, as with pretty much every holiday, I got some sweet new running things! Not that I needed any more running things. But they are some of my favorite things. I got these  New Balance tights mostly because they are so pretty. Look at how cute they are! I also got this poster from I Love to Run. Basically you  mark off every day that you exercise, the goal being to not break the chain. It should act as a motivator. We shall see.  I also got this headphone which is one sided so you can hear music in one ear (the whole song, not split like normal headphones) but have an ear open for traffic, people, etc. I also got a new holder for my race bibs. I filled the last one up. Run all the races!!! Excited to fill this one up with new adventures.  The teeth say Runner, Their are water bottles and shoes and other fun running stuff in the skull!  In terms of training this week...well lets just say Christmas cheer took over. Most ...

This morning I ran 20 miles....in the rain. The entire 20 miles it was raining. I may have been a bit bitter about this. The cool thing was that my coach met me for the last four to try to squeeze out some speed on tired legs. And even though I was cold and miserable and throwing a complete shit fit in my head we managed to run 4 miles at an average pace of 9:27. Whhaaaaaa. That was a huge confidence boost and I am lucky my coach is nice enough to also run in the rain. On to more fun things! Yesterday D and I hit Hotlanta for some adventures. We hit the Aquarium, World of Coca- Cola, Trader Joe's and The Vortex. Fun, shopping and food. The perfect day. For those of you who may not know I have a weird fascination with marine life. So I was super excited for the aquarium. Probably more so than is healthy. The Georgia aquarium is the largest in the world and they have some incredible displays.  They have a tank large enough to hold like five whale sharks. Whale sharks are t...

 Christmas eve we made homemade pizza and hot chocolate with the fancy marshmallows. Fancy marshmallows make everything better. After a day of Christmas movies and eating it was early to bed so we could get up early and open presents!!! I love to make French Toast with this type of bread for Christmas morning. It reminds me of my mother-in-law who made it for us one time when we were with them over the holidays. And it is so delicious. You know what would go better with this dessert tasting bread- syrup! Breakfast on Christmas done right.  But you have to open presents first. None of this waiting around. Max got to open his first and was very excited to get a new green dog toy. I made out like a bandit. My BF Maren got me this pancake ornament. Love! She fully supports my love of the breakfast foods. Plus I got sweet smelling lotions and lip stuff and a food processor and cast iron dutch oven (I feel these are gifts for me as well as D who will l...

First thing- family is here to visit for the weekend so I am pretty excited to hang with them and do fun stuff! Second thing- I have somehow magically (okay it wasn't magic it was nice run blogger Falon  who was kind enough to invite me) hooked up with an amazing group of run bloggers who are planning to do the Chicago marathon. The general idea is to coordinate lodging, eating,  and expo and geek out on running and races and medals I hope and carb load- lots of carb loading please. I am about to lose my mind with excitement. I was excited about the Chicago marathon before.....now- oh my gosh, freak out. It is going to be so much fun. So if you are thinking of doing the Chicago marathon let me know because you do not want to miss this fun! Third thing- with above mentioned family we celebrated a late Christmas and I scored pretty big. Believe I am journal  I have heard great things about this running journal and can not wait to get some goals down and start track...

Having people visit is always fun because it forces D & I to explore the area more. We have a tendency to be hermits so having guests to show around motivates us to get out of the house. On Christmas Eve we headed to Target because their commercial lured us in (I said get out of the house, I didn't say we had to go somewhere new). Okay I don't really need a commercial to motivate me to go to Target. If  I could live there I would. I found these sweet shirts, both for under $20. Win. After our shopping extravaganza we went on the hunt for Chicago dogs and found them at Trolley Dogs in Kenosha. Delicious.   After stuffing our faces we headed home and waited for Santa. Max was beside himself with excitement.  We always open a present on Christmas eve and I got to play santa this year. Christmas morning we woke up bright and early, slammed some coffee and got down to business. I got some sweet running gear.  New medal han...