Weekend Things

Patrick and I did a track workout again on Sunday.  We warmed up for .5 miles and then did .1 walk/ .1 run (fast) ten times with a .5 mile cool down.  Total miles: 3.0  Total Time: 38ish minutes.  Awesome, considering we walked half of the miles.  The legs felt really good and we were able to hold strong on the run laps.  We were trying to push it and go fast.  I really want to work on my 5K time, so I know I need to work on speed.  Patrick is just trying to work on getting back to running regularly and I may have convinced him to run a 5K with me in April!

I also tested out my new running skirt yesterday.  I am in love!  This thing is quite possibly the most comfortable (and the cutest!) piece of running gear I own.  My only complaint is that I ordered the size based on my pant size and it seems a little big.  And since I'm in the process of losing weight, I might have to buy another one or else mine will be falling down.  But I love it!  I can't say that I will be running out and buying any at full price, but I will keep my eye on the sale page (or I will gladly accept them as gifts)!  You can find Running Skirts HERE.

 One of my goals for 2011 was to read 25 books this year.  For those who are interested, I'm going to share the books here.  I stayed up until 1:30 in the morning finishing this book (oops!) on Saturday.  I should mention that I am someone that can sit down and read for hours on end if the book is good.  I really love to read. 

My first book of 2011 was Atonement.  I really enjoyed the book and plan on watching the movie soon, although I have heard it's not nearly as good as the book.  I have a hard time summarizing the book without giving it away, so I don't want to say too much, but I may have cried a little at the end.  Any recommendations for my next read?

Stay tuned this week!  I have at least 2, if not 3 giveaways coming up!

Three Things Thursday

1.  I'm taking the plunge.  I signed up for Tall Mom's 1000+++ Mile Club.  (If you want to join, you can signup HERE.)  Technically the challenge is to walk, run, or swim 1000 miles in 2011.  Technically cycling doesn't count.  But because much of my training involves cycling, I'm making it my personal goal to move 1000 miles in 2010.  I'm not sure I could get there with running and walking alone.  Maybe that will be my goal for next year!

2.  I took another plunge and bought a running skirt!  Running Skirts is having a sale on their items already on sale.  So it was only $20.11!  I've been wanting on for awhile, but felt that the $58 price tag is a bit steep.  The best part is that it shipped yesterday and should be waiting for me in Maine when I return.  Unfortunately it's a little cold in Maine to be running in a skirt.  I'm thinking I'll just have to debut it at the gym and suffer the funny looks I'm going to get.

3.  I have a 3 mile run scheduled for today because I missed out yesterday.  I thought I was coming down with a cold and wasn't feeling well, so I thought it best to rest.  I also had some sore of irritation on my face that was making me really itchy (I think it's my new face wash).  So I took the day off.  But I'm feeling much better today and I need to get in my fourth workout for the week.  I'm going to do the same loop that I did last Friday to see if I can do the loop faster.  And tomorrow I weigh in, so I'm hoping it pays off!

Happy Thursday!

Three Things Thursday

1. I won't leave you in suspense: my pro pics came in yesterday!!! I am so excited. My biggest fear with my wedding was that I wouldn't like my pictures, but I love them! There are so many great shots and some awesome candids. Now that I've got all those, I'm going to get a recap up. I only wanted you to have the very best. :-) I won't torture you too much and I'll share a couple of my favorites here:

My mom and I:

The whole bridal party:

With my girls:

And my favs of Patrick and I:

And, last but not least, my absolute favorite:

2.  I finally got my haircut.  I grew my hair out for the wedding, even though I knew I was going to wear it up.  So I guess I could have kept it shorter, but I'm glad I didn't.  It looked really nice for the wedding and now it is all gone!  I feel about 10 pounds lighter.  Here's a before pic (not the greatest, but I picked it to demonstrate the length of my hair):

And here I am fresh from the salon.  I really love it like this.  However, I'm a bit too lazy to do this all the time.

So here's how it looks most of the time.  My hair is naturally curly and I just assume let it do its thing.  Besides, I think this look is cute too.

2.  Did I show you the best wedding gift ever?  It's from my wonderful new husband.  Check it out:

I am soooo excited to have a Garmin.  I'm tempted to wear it everywhere, but I've been limiting myself to workouts only.  Having it definitely motivates me to get back into my exercise routine (and I need all the help I can get right now!).  Patrick got a new bike and we're dog-sitting this week in a neighborhood that is right next to a bike trail so we've been doing that.  Last night we went out after dinner when it was cooler and the trail was shadier.  It was a great ride and I'm loving having stats that are accurate.  I'm a number cruncher, so this thing is addicting.  Once I get back into a regular workout routine, I'm really hoping that the Garmin will help me have more productive and higher quality workouts.

Life is good!  :-)

Note:  All the wedding photos were taken by Amanda Perkins Photography.

In Need of Rest

I can't believe I'm almost done week 2 of my half-marathon training plan!  I've been doing really well with it so far and I haven't missed anything.  Today is supposed to be a 3 mile run with some strength training, but I am so sore and exhausted from the beginning of the week, that I'm thinking I'm going to take my rest day today instead of tomorrow.  Besides, it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow so I can hopefully run outside.  I was reading ShutUpAndRun's post about The Ten Commandments of Endurance.  One of them was to be nice to your body.  So I'm being nice and hopefully my body will thank me later. 

As a side note, if you don't read Shut Up And Run, it's hysterical and you should check it out.

I know that Christmas has really come and gone, but I got a lot of running stuff for Christmas that I wanted to show off share.  First off, as you know, it's cold in Maine and you need running gloves.  Well I didn't have any, but now I do.  I particularly like the white ones that say Princess on the pointer finger.  I think they could have picked a better location for the wording, oh wait, these are made for young children, not adults.

I also got this great Nike long-sleeved running shirt.  The one problem with this shirt is that it might be slightly too small, but I couldn't return it for a bigger size because my mom took the tags off.  Oh well.  It works well as a base layer though and I just put a larger t-shirt over it.  It has been keeping me warm when I run outside and it really does a good job of wicking away the sweat.

My mom also got me this great running fleece.  It has great pockets for iPods, cell phones, gloves, etc. but this is too nice to run in.  So I'm running in my old crappy fleece and wearing this one during the day to keep me warm in class.  Because in Maine, it's even cold inside.

I also got some Under Armor running pants (sorry for the crappy picture).  These things are so nice.  The keep me nice and warm and I don't have to wear anything else under them.  And they aren't too big in the knees, like my other pants.  They only thing they are missing is a pocket, which would make them even better.

And my awesome brother got me these great ear muffs!  You know, the ones that wrap around your head.  Except these ones have speakers built into each ear.  Greatest invention ever.  They keep my ears warm and I have surround sound on my head!  Sweet!

And finally, Patrick got me a year's subscription to Runner's World.  I'm still waiting for my first issue to come in, but I'm really excited about it!

 

And that was my Christmas.  Really, all I got was running stuff.  New gear keeps me motivated so I was happy with what I got.

What are your favorite pieces of workout wear?

Sweet Socks!

On Sunday I went on my first run in about a week and a half (since my trip to Washington).  While some people think taking a break is really helpful, I on the other hand, disagree.  It was a miserable run.  It was a beautiful day out, in the mid 50s, which is quite warm considering the weather we've been having.  Enter mistake number one: I wore leggings and a long sleeve t-shirt.  Completely unnecessary!  I should've worn shorts and a regular t-shirt.  So I started out moving right along.  Enter mistake number two: I started out way too fast.  After just ten minutes I was dying and needed to walk.  I continued the rest of my run by walking every 5-10 minutes.  Anyway, I did about 3 miles and it took me about 33 minutes.

However, my socks were wonderful!  I recently won a giveaway put on I Run Like A Girl (oh how I love winning!) for two pairs of Drymax socks.  Check them out:

I'm really excited about the winter running socks because it's really starting to get cold here in Maine and I've decided that I want to keep up my running through the winter.  And here are the socks on my feet:

I was actually a little worried that they wouldn't fit because they are a size mediums and I have huge feet (size 11, in case you don't believe me).  Luckily, they fit great!  The promise of these socks is that you will be blister free and your feet will stay nice and dry.  Now, I've never had a problem with blisters so I can't attest to that part of the promise, but I will say that these are some pretty darn nice socks!  I was impressed.  I noticed a difference from my regular cotton socks.  I had read that runners should really invest in good socks, but I couldn't see spending tons of money on socks.  These are worth it.   I will be asking for more for Christmas (hint, hint!).  I highly recommend giving them a try!  Happy running!

New Toy!

I should start off by apologizing for the lame pictures lately. I've been super lazy about taking my own pictures and have resorted to stealing them from other people off the Internet. Today's is a bit more realistic, like something I could actually take. That being said, guess what I got?

A green iPod shuffle? Boy you guys are smart. Why yes I did! I've been saying that I wanted one of these for the past couple weeks so my wonderful fiance took me to Best Buy on Tuesday night and bought me one. Isn't he sweet? I have a large iPod that I have an armband for. However, there are several reasons I don't enjoy running with it:

1. It has moving parts and it's not really good for it to be shaken around like that.
2. It gets kind of heavy on long runs.
3. When it's hot out, it's one more thing on my body contributing to my overheating.
4. I'm worried about ugly tan lines cause by my arm band.

Anyway, I really just wanted something lighter and more compact for running, especially since I'll be running even more once I start training for my 10K. I ran with it yesterday and was very happy with its performance. It was much less aggravating than my large iPod and it clipped nicely to my running shorts. And the color is fabulous! It was so nice to have that I forgot all about my sciatic pain!

Fun Stuff

Despite the rather rainy weather, I was still able to get out for my bike ride yesterday. Patrick came with me, which was really nice. He said that he'd like to come on all my training bike rides with me. I don't mind at all because it's nice to have a biking buddy. While we were out we stopped at Goodale's Bike Shop here in Nashua. They were having a sale so I finally broke down and bought myself one of these babies:

This is a bike computer. It has a clock, an odometer, a speedometer, a stopwatch, a pace function, and a couple of other functions I can't remember. I'm hooking it up tomorrow so I can use it on my ride on Wednesday. I also got a new holder for a water bottle and a spiffy new water bottle to go in it. My old one was Velcro and the bottled that came with it had Velcro on it and it was quite handy. Except that now the water bottle has bitten the dust and I couldn't find a new one, so I just got a new holder instead.

Another recent purchase was this lovely handbag made by Fossil:
I bought this for losing 10 pounds. I figured I deserved it. I had seen it and really liked it, but I held off and made it a weight loss incentive. It just screams Summer!

My Favorite Running Gear

When I go running, I'm a little picky about what I wear and what I take with me. So I thought I'd share my favorite running things.

This is my new running outfit from Nike. We stopped at the Kittery outlets on our way home from the wedding and I bought this. The shorts are nice because they are a bit longer than normal running shorts. The top is lightweight and a bit stretchy (always good!). It's super comfortable and it's a $66 outfit that I got for $22. Please also note that this outfit is color coordinated. There's nothing wrong with trying to look nice while you're out running!

These are my current running shoes made by Saucony. I have a hard time finding running shoes that are comfortable and that last. I have really flat feet so I break them down really fast. So far, so good with these though.

This, I just bought. I decided that I needed a stopwatch for my triathlon training. A lot of the runs are certain amounts of time instead of distances so I needed something that I could use to time myself. Nothing too fancy. I got it at Target for $10.

This is my running hat. I think I like this thing a little too much. It's really light and has lots of ventilation. I like to keep the sun off my face, but I hat wearing regular hats because they trap all the heat in there and then my head feels like it's going to explode! No good! I won this in a giveaway at the Gate City Striders Trail Race series last summer. They are the local running club.

And of course, I could not embark on a run without some tunes! I love my iPod and the armband that I got to go with it. It holds that sucker in place so I can jam out for my whole run. It's a little heavy because I have a large iPod, but I think it's worth it!