Monthly Archives: May 2011

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Biggest Loser Finale!

The Biggest Loser Finale!

Tonight, I will be at one of three elementary music concerts my students have this week. With late nights this week, I won’t be able to run at all. I wish I was someone that could get up at 5 am and go to the gym or run and have enough time to shower, wash my hair and get to work, but I just can’t do it yet. Maybe in a few years I will shift my workouts to before work, but during the school year I love running in the afternoon. For the next few days, I will just go with an excuse that I am still recovering from my marathon :) With temperatures in the 80′s, I am going to have to get used to running in the heat! I love running in cooler weather, so summers are always rough.

Biggest Loser finale tonight!! I watch this show every season and love Jillian and Bob. I was disappointed with no Biggest Loser marathon this year, but I am still looking forward to the finale. I will have to record it and watch it when I get back from school, but I am definitely rooting for the girls this season.

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I joined a gym!

This is going to be one of the busiest weeks of the year for me! I have school commitments Monday-Thursday night this week and I have no idea how I will fit in a run. Thank goodness I can keep telling myself I am just recovering from the marathon and I can take it easy this week.

After school today I drove over to a local gym that I have been thinking of joining because they had a special membership deal thing going on today. I joined a gym in the Spring of 2009 because I had not worked out for almost a year. I knew my goal was to start running, but I had to do some elliptical first before I could even try running. I ended up getting a Nike+ that summer and slowly got into running over the fall. I would run/walk up to about 5 or 6 miles, but never imagined I would run a half marathon that spring. Later, I upgraded to the Garmin 405 and started running all the time. Since I was getting my cardio from running, it was difficult to get myself to drive to a gym so I could use weight machines. There were no classes offered and I eventually dropped the membership and increased my running mileage.

My goal for this summer is: to incorporate cross-training into my workouts. I haven’t gotten injured from running besides a short IT band issue in December that I fixed with my foam roller and new shoes. I have started yoga at home, but would love to take classes. I decided to join my current gym today because they have a ton of classes and offer yoga, pilates, spinning, and BodyPump! My bff Anne also goes to the gym, so it is our goal to become BodyPump buddies and make ourselves go 2 times a week. Of course, I can’t start this week with all my night commitments and Anne is away this weekend. So I guess our first BodyPump date will be next Tuesday :)

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After I joined the gym, I was able to stay at home for an hour and quick eat something. I made a salad with tomatoes, chic peas, cucumber, califlower, carrots and feta cheese. I also made two bean and cheese quesadillas because they are fast and I had tortillas. This held me over for most of the night. Oh, yeah… I also had Tastycakes. I know, I know – not the best for a health blog, but I can’t help it. They are one of my weaknesses.

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When I got home just before 10, I went for what was left of my So Delicious Coconut Chocolate “Ice Cream”.
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Yes, I finally caved and posted an unflattering picture. I’m sure there will be more. I finished the last 1/3 of the container tonight. No, I didn’t need anymore chocolate or sugar but I had to eat it. This stuff is so good, and I don’t even like ice cream!
I am going to now attempt to do a little yoga tonight so I feel like I did something. I should probably start doing a few push ups to get me ready for BodyPump next week. My arms are so weak!!
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Pittsburgh Marathon

On Sunday May 15th, I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon (my first full marathon) and had a fantastic experience! Colby and I drove to Pittsburgh Saturday morning and stayed at the Omni William Penn Hotel. We stayed at this hotel last year when he ran the full and I ran the half marathon. We had just met a few months before that and somehow he talked me into the half marathon. I absolutely loved it and have since run two other half marathons. Over the summer, I started thinking about full marathons and signed up for Pittsburgh so that I would have to train for it over the winter. I compulsively followed Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Marathon Training Schedule and it was completely worth it!

A few weeks before the marathon, I had to answer a few serious questions. What will I wear?! Do I carry a water bottle with water or gatorade? Do I carry my iphone? How will I wear my hair?!?!

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Please excuse my messy closet and the fact that my head is cut off… but doesn’t my hair look good??

I decided on new Brooks shorts and tank that were SO comfortable! Worth the investment and the tank had a back zip pocket that fit my 900 gu’s for the race. Although I wish I could leave my hair down and curled, up it went into a ponytail with a black sparkle BIC band. I love these things and they never slide off my head when I run. I used a SPIbelt to hold my iphone for the race in case I couldn’t find Colby at the end. I should have used it to take more pictures at the beginning of the race, but I was trying not to throw up from nerves because 22,000 runners were around me. Hopefully I get better at this picture taking thing!

The expo was nice on Saturday and it was easy to get to our bibs, race bags and t shirts. Since I am obsessed with compression, I bought new bright pink compression sleeves from C.E.P. and wore them for the race. I know you shouldn’t wear new stuff for races, but I couldn’t help myself! Colby told me that 26.2 Apparel was going to be at one of the booths and I made sure we got to them. I ran over to the stand and met Mark and told him my obsession with reading running blogs. If SkinnyRunner has a 26.2 running outfit, shouldn’t I?! I picked up the pink tshirt and fell in love with how soft it is!

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Colby and I tried to get some sleep Saturday night and woke up at 4:15 am Sunday morning. We ate our bananas, cereal, overnight oats and more while watching race updates on the local news. I was also happy that one of my friends from my college music department was going to be running the half and we were going to try to meet up at the corral placements. We ended up running the first 9 miles together! It was awesome to have a friend that runs my pace to start with and it definitely kept me calm.
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This is the bridge you cross around mile 25.5 to get to the finish near PNC park.
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I took this around 6 am near the start of the race. Colby had to walk to corral A and I had to go back to E……
My goal for my first marathon was 4 and 1/2 hours and I came in at 4 hrs 28 min and 35 sec! Colby was a beast and finished at 3 hrs 12 min and 31 sec. He is so amazing :) He had to wait around for me at the end for over an hour and was sooooo happy to see me! Now I just have to decide what marathon to sign up for next……….
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Running Again!

10:06 AM: 3 mile run (2.75 @ 9:47 pace, .25 walk)

This was my first run after the marathon! It was already 72 degrees outside and I am still super congested from my cold, so I wasn’t expecting too much. Colby slowed his pace down and ran with me. (Aww, how nice!) He runs miles in the 7:00′s and I run in the 9:00′s on good days! My legs felt pretty good for running the marathon last Sunday, but I am ready to get rid of this cold!

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Modeling my new shirt and pretending to stretch…

I was also very excited to try out my new 26.2 Apparel t shirt I got at the Pittsburgh Marathon expo! I practically ran over to their booth because I was so excited to see if their shirts were as soft as everyone claims… and it was because I bought the cute pink T. Eventually, I will have to write a review of the marathon.

Breakfast was my usual overnight oats with peanut butter and coffee in my Sleeping Beauty mug :)

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I had plans to go to lunch with my BFF from high school, Anne. Anne needed SPANX for a dress that she is wearing next weekend and said the only place that had them was a Bloomingdales in Maryland. I haven’t seen her in FOREVER so I definitely agreed to the mini road trip.

After almost two hours in the car, we got to a crazy parking garage that took us up to a HUGE Bloomingdales. We couldn’t even figure out the elevator and obviously that my camera has two flashes…

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Clearly our best photo ever…

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Take 2… still pretty bad. Where is my ponytail?? It was so humid in my house after my shower today and I couldn’t handle straightening my hair.
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Yessss! SPANX! Now we can go to lunch…
About 5 seconds after that classy photo of Anne and her SPANX was taken she realized that they were not the right ones… So we ended up going upstairs to another department, finding them in the wrong size and ordering them from another store. Now Anne will get her SPANX mailed to her house and we ended up driving two hours to go to lunch at P.F. Changs! I was starving and ordered way too much food (egg drop soup, crispy green beans, and lettuce wraps). I also tried to eat way too fast and burnt the roof of my mouth. I hate when I do that!!!
Now I am off to relax, probably eat more before the night is over and use my foam roller. I’m obsessed with my big orange foam roller. I even took it to the hotel in Pittsburgh last weekend. Of course, nobody thought it was odd for me to carry around my foam roller because there were 22,000 runners in Pittsburgh that weekend :)
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First post!

Hello! This is my first post ever, and I am not sure if anyone will even read this! I am hoping this blog will force me to take more pictures of my life, eat healthy meals and stay accountable for my workouts.  I started running in the summer of 2009 and have fallen in love with the activity.  I ran 3 half marathons in 2010 and just completed my first full marathon last Sunday! My legs were definitely sore on Monday and Tuesday, but my muscles are feeling great now!  I did pick up a nasty cold this week and I have been super congested.  Hoping to run tomorrow!

I have been trying to stretch and this morning I tried some yoga! I tried the 20 minute Power Vinyasa Flow #5 video from YogaDownload.com and it was definitely challenging!

Tonight I enjoyed spinach enchiladas at a favorite local mexican restaurant.

My gorgeous boyfriend enjoyed his steak, chicken and shrimp fajitas :)

I guess I will try to figure out how to use Word Press tonight and hopefully make this blog look a little better!