Bloggy exchange!

Ok I am SO lame. I got my bloggy exchange gift from the most-fabulous Jennica over at SeRUNity a while ago, and it took me FOREVER to write about it.

And you know what? It is FABULOUS.

Ready for this? It was a gold, sparkly, ADJUSTABLE running headband. And it is AWESOME! (obv. Utah girls know what's up!)

Please forgive these crummy pictures- it was an early run! Alisha immediately complimented my supreme bling.

Thanks to Jill for organizing again this year. It is fun to have new running friends across the country!

Happy 2012 all! Goals to come. Just gotta think them through!

Sarah

Best run in a while

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! We spent ours at my parent's - ate lots of food and relaxed. Got some sweet stuff - P got me a keirig for the office. Rock!

Today I went running. I've been taking it easy with the food tracking and the obsessive gym-img. Just needed a rest you know?

Today I planned 4 miles, but ended up doing 5! In just under 60 min. Yup. 12 min/mile average. The 5th mile was 11:00. Seriously! I got this new app for my phone that analyzed my pace and picked songs from my library. Loved it! Nice to have variety from my usual lust and I think it kept me pumped.

More family stuff tomorrow! I love this time of year!

Sarah

Finally! Winter!

And of course, that would be my first long-run of the training season...

We have had very unseasonably warm weather here in NC.  It's been AWESOME.  But today, my first run of the training season, was a chilly one.  27 degrees!  Where did that come from??!!

Alisha and I are officially training for our 2nd half-marathon.  March 18th in Wrightsville Beach.  I'm pretty pumped about it.  Should be a bigger race, and much more scenic than lovely jacksonville was.  Also, not quite so many marines.  Probably a few more penguins like us.

Also, it's the day after St. Patrick's Day.  This is good because we can hang with our friends for the holiday (we'll go to bed early and bunk at our friend's house who is running the race too) and then alll of our buddies can haul their hungover butts to the finish line to cheer us on, lead of course, by U-S Husband and Alisha's beau, Rob. 

But, given that it's (eep) exactly 3 months away, we've got some training to do.  We go up from the 4-miler we did today by half a mile each week.  We're hoping to take a yoga class on the days after the long run to limber up. Two 3-4 mile runs a week, some strength training, and spin class on Sundays will round it out.  It will probably be intense, but I feel good about the cross and strength training element which we more or less left out before.

Our goal is to finish stronger than the last one, but hopefully in under 3 hours.  Seems totally do-able - especially because we've done it before.

Any whoo...

I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!  I'm spending most of my time eating sweet treats... ugh.  (also YUM!)  I'm participating in a running blog gift swap again this year - While I'm a bit late, I picked out some AWESOME stuff for my buddy.  Fun!

So, dear readers, what races are you gearing up for in 2012?  Anything new and exciting for you?

Sarah

What I did on my Utah Vacation

Hi!  Long time no see!  I promise to be better about this whole blogging thing, but I have a great excuse this week - I was on vacation in Salt Lake City!

My inlaws moved there a couple of years ago.  Although it's sad that we don't get to see them as often as we'd like, we do have some pretty bangin visits.

This week we:

The Jurassic Park theme wouldn't get out of my head...

Went to the amazing new Natural History Museum.  Do you know how many dinosaurs used to be in Utah?  Like, Gazillions.

 Went on a 6-mile hike around the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  We learned at the natural history museum that the valley in Salt Lake used to be, well, a lake, so the "shoreline" was about halfway up the mountains.  Pretty cool.





 Drank a lot of Polygamy Porter.  Not only does it have a fab. label, it's also quite delicious.

Why have just one?

Saw The Muppet Movie.

Went snow tubing!  We giggled for 2 hours.

Ran in 15 degree weather!  3.1 miles with my patient father-in-law.  We had a great time!  The altitude and the cold took me the rest of the day to recover from though.   The good news is that my new jacket is perfect for winter running (and long johns work pretty well under running pants.  :-) )







Skied on perfect Utah powder.  The mountain was all ours save a few snow boarders (who, thankfully, stayed out of our way)

Erin, Preston, Me, and Rosa.  We dominated up at Brighton!

Shopped.

Ate.

Read. (I finished 5 books - that is my favorite thing about vacation - having time to finish books in one day.  One of life's little luxuries!)




 Went downtown to Temple Square to see the lights.  The Mormons go all out - it is always beautiful!

From the top of the Joseph Smith Building.

Hung out with my amazing family - I'm so blessed to become a part of the Willcox clan!




Leaving was bittersweet, but it's good to be home.

Oh, and PS, even though I thought I indulged all weekend, I must have done something right - I lost almost a full pound this week!  (and I didn't track AT ALL - which I recommend everyone take the chance to do at least one week this holiday season).




I leave you with a picture taken out of the downstairs window of my inlaw's house... 

See why it's so relaxing to spend a week there?

We are seriously blessed.



Sarah

My first run back

Ok, I've done a little on the treadmill, but this was my first "real" run back. 

And it was highly unpleasant, but oh so wonderful.

I made a couple of critical mistakes.
1.  I ran in the middle of the afternoon.  Which is never a good time for me.  Just after lunch, too.  And I had milk at lunch (yay acid reflux!  yuck!)
2.  I was under-hydrated.
3.  It was 80 degrees.  My face was SO red!!  I looked like a clown.
4.  I ran my hill course.  It's one of my favorites, but it's a tough route on a regular day.
5.  I went WAY too fast.  I finished 2 miles in about 24.5 minutes... oops.  It's like I forgot how to run slowly.  Gonna have to work on that.

But, the good news is, my leg feels fine.  I'm going to give it 2 days of no running and then try a 3-miler with Alisha on Saturday.  Flat course, greenway, should be good.  Also, it will be a lot cooler which is always welcome.

So, despite the side stitches (wow - been a while since I had those!) and the red face, I still had a great time, and I'm very happy to be running again! 

Sarah

Yo yo!

Hey gang!  I'm back!  Things have been wild so I havent been too inspired to blog.  Also, this injury thing kinda got me down - hard to write a running blog when you can't run!

That said, I'm back to it.  So, I sort of spaced and missed my check up to get cleared to run.  (Doh) but, never fear, the interwebz are  here!  Let's face it, I knew what he was going to tell me...

"Well, it looks fine on the xray, and it's not hurting you, so just take it easy getting back into it."

And, let's also face this, that 10 minute appointment just wasn't worth $250.

So.  I ran a couple of laps at the YMCA to test it out.  1/4 mile.  Nothing serious.

Then, a mile of mostly walking on the treadmill.

Then, 2 miles - 2/1 intervals.

It still feels great.  No pain!  Not even after the fact after (more facing it) putting a lot of pressure on the spot - just to be sure!

So, things are looking good.  I'm going to try an easy 3-miler with Alisha on Saturday.  I'm about to bust to run the thanksgiving race in charleston again this year - it is one of my favorite 5ks of the year - I will not miss it!!

Still loving spin class, weight-lifting, and the new ellipticals at the YMCA.  Alisha put together our half training program for the spring, and it's very heavy on cross training - yoga after long runs (I thought that was a genius idea!) spin class for maximum cardio, and weight lifting to make us infinitely stronger.  It's intense, but diverse.  Excited!

Enough about me - let me tell you that you have to go to my friend Regan's blog... she just finished her 2nd half-marathon - and PRd it by 29 minutes!  She's pretty damned inspirational.  Way to go, R!!

Happy Fall!
Sarah

PS, my thanks to North Carolina for the AMAZING fall weather.  It has been glorious!!!

A couple of random things...

That wouldn't have happened before.

Today I talked myself out of the gym.  I was totally resolved to skip it and take a nap.

But I went and did 60 minutes on the elliptical.  My fitness pal tells me it was about 600 calories.  And since I had it set on level 10 hills, I believe them.  So tonight I'm having thai food.  yum.

Also, the other night we went to the theater.  (Rock of Ages - super-fun!) I decided to get a brownie.  They're usually pretty tasty.  Well, I took a bite and it was only, well, meh.  A little dry, nothing special.

So I bailed on it.  I abandoned a perfectly good brownie.

And finally, I forgot my coffee before the gym last week, so I was going to hit starbucks for a latte.  Looked up the calories... so not worth it.  So, I went to Panera for a good cup of hazelnut with a tiny bit of half and half.  Delish.  I bought Halloween cookies - 3 of them.  One for each of the people in my suite in the office... but not one for me. 

Here's to making small decisions.  They matter.

Sarah