A Pretty Run with Buddy

We watched The Monuments Men last night. It was really good, and extra crazy knowing that it's based on true events. Have you seen it?

Buddy's beds have been smelling extra doggy lately, so we decided it was about time we washed them (it's been a while). He was not happy with them getting moved.

This afternoon, Buddy and I went running at Rockefeller. Since I wasn't worried about pace, I brought my phone with us.

My running group was just talking last weekend about how weird it was that there was no ice on the lake. It was definitely there today!

 Buddy and I ended up running 1.84 miles in 15:54.

That brings my total mileage for 2014 up to 1,024!

We are heading over to our friend's house for a New Years Bonfire later (just like last year) - it's supposed to be cold, so there will be many layers involved. Nothing like ringing in the new year with flaming Christmas trees!

What are your New Years Eve plans?

Looking back and Looking ahead

A few weeks ago, I actually won a blog giveaway! I was really excited because I pretty much never win anything. I know everyone says that, but it's totally true.

Anyway, I won a bunch of smoothie making goodies from Jamie and Puritan's Pride and it came in the mail today!

Hooray! I know what I'm making tomorrow!

It feels like this every year, but I can't believe it's the end of December already! (Also: I just typed September...)

Everyone seems to be doing some kind of running year in review post, so I thought I would join in.

In 2014, I:

• Bought a treadmill - best decision ever
• Joined Rivertown Runners - my Saturday group
• Ran 3 half marathons - the most I have run in a single year
• Improved my PR at each race
• Broke 2 hours at the Fall Foliage Half Marathon
• Took 18:21 off my half marathon time - between March and October
• Had my first DNS - because of the threat of snow and my own laziness
• Ran over 1,000 miles! - I'm currently at 1,022

As far as 2015 goes, I want to:

• Run my first full marathon - which one is currently up in the air
• Run at least 2 half marathons - 3 was a good number, but I'm not sure how it will play out if I'm doing a full
• Actually strength train - I say it every year, it's gotta stick sometime!

I'm also thinking about running a few shorter races next year, but don't hold me to it.

It's hard to plan too far ahead when we have some big changes in the works. At some point in the near(ish) future we will be moving and remodeling a house, and I'll be starting a new job (more on that later).

Are you happy with your 2014? What changes are you going to make in 2015?

I'm Smart Like That

Hi! How's your Monday treating you?

Don't hate me, but I slept in. Not working makes it so you don't hate Mondays. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back on the Monday-hating bandwagon again soon.

It was sunny out today, so Buddy was busy following the sun around the house. Usually he lays down behind this curtain, but was confused since it was open today.

I feel like everyone updates their blogs on Monday, I had TONS to read this morning!

It took me forever to get moving today, but I finally hit the basement for a couple of miles.

I used my run as a warm-up and spent some time on Gigabody doing the Ballet Body workout again. It's a good mix of strength training and stretching, neither of which I normally do. I'm pretty much constantly saying I should do something other than run and then I just go running.

I'm smart like that.

How have I never tried a Quest bar before?

Tom got me a special holiday RunnerBox for Christmas, and there was a Quest bar in it. I have read several blogs that go on and on about how wonderful they are, but haven't ever tried them - until today.

This cookies and cream Quest bar might be the best protein bar ever. To the point where I may actually make a trip down to GNC to pick some up.

I was really sad when it was gone, and I was happy to see that it isn't full of strange chemicals and things. Apparently people also cook things with Quest bars. Seems like a lot of work when it's so delicious on its own.

In an effort to make the dog less stressed, we decided to run the self-clean function on the oven. Hopefully that will make the smoke alarm chill out - time will tell.

Have you had Quest bars before? Other favorite protein bars?

A clean house, a new planner and a quick mile

The house is so clean!

We spent a couple of hours cleaning the house from top to bottom this morning. We ended up having two people make appointments to see the house today. Only one realtor left a card, so we don't know if they both ended up showing up or not.

We took Buddy for a walk around Rockefeller Preserve while people were at the house.

It would be prettier if we had snow.

This afternoon we watched the Giants lose yet another game, and then we headed to Target (sorry Jan, I know it's a sore subject) to get a few things we needed, and a few that we didn't. It's Target, you can't ever leave without buying more than you mean to.

I picked up a cute planner for next year.

I love all things internet except for calendars/organizers. I like to have things written on paper, in my hand. It's weird.

I intend to have things to write in it soon, and not just races! :)

I got a quick mile in before dinner. I'm too close to the end of the Runner's World Holiday Run Streak to stop now! Friday is going to be my first rest day since November 15th. I'm looking forward to it.

Since I was only running a mile, I ran it fast.

Cutting back on my mileage seems to be making my ankle happier, so that's good news. I hate when I'm injured, though, clearly not enough to actually stop running.

Are you an old-school or high-tech calendar/organizer kind of person?

I'm bad at bedtimes

No matter how hard I try, I can't make it to bed on time on Fridays. 6:45 was too early again today.

I started the day off with a peanut butter English muffin and coffee.

As per usual.

It didn't feel very cold when I walked Buddy, but the start of the run was definitely pretty chilly. A few brave souls were actually in shorts today!

I had fun poring over all my stats from my TomTom when I got home. I'm not sure about the default max heartrate/heartrate zones. According to my watch, I was in my top zone for over a half hour, which I don't think is right. I'm investigating. We covered 6.5 miles with an average pace of 8:59. As an added bonus, I didn't fall today!

After some more coffee (and apple pie) I tried out another workout from Gigabody. This time I tried the Ballet Body workout. Aside from feeling terribly ungraceful, I liked it and will probably do it again.

Buddy found some sunshine.

Sunshine is his favorite. And food...and Tom...

Tom made deep dish pizza for dinner. Buddy only acted a little weird while the oven was on.

Someone is coming to look at the house tomorrow...we have a bit of cleaning to do.

Do you monitor your heart rate when running/working out? Do you trust the "zones"?

Buddy's hiding and I cleaned the oven

I cleaned the glass on the oven door today. I don't really know why (other than the fact that it was dirty, but that's never inspired me before), but it's really clean now!

It's kind of hard to tell just how dirty this was, since I didn't think to take a picture until I had already started. I made a paste out of baking soda and water and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then I scrubbed and scrubbed and SCRUBBED.

And now it looks like this:

So pretty!

I did an easy 4 miles while I watched part of a documentary about Burt of Burt's Bees (It's called Burt's Buzz). It's pretty interesting so far, I needed a break from Gilmore Girls - I've only seen every episode 10+ times.

I also spent some time playing with the resistance bands I bought Tom for Christmas. :)

Buddy has been hiding on the side of the couch because Tom has the oven on and he's sure the smoke alarm will go off at any moment.

Crazy, neurotic dog.

I'm still figuring out all the nifty features of my new gps watch. I haven't used it outside yet, so I'm looking forward to taking it out on my group run tomorrow. Now I just have to try not to stay up way too late like I do every other Friday night.

...Right.

What shows/movies have you watched WAY too many times?

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Merry Christmas!

We had a fun morning unwrapping presents and watching Buddy unwrap his presents. We should have taken a video, it was pretty cute. He gingerly ripped little pieces of wrapping paper off and spit them out. Now he has a pile of toys for us to trip over.

And that's not even all of them.

Tom got me a TomTom Runner Cardio for Christmas - he's the best :)

Naturally, I had to take it for a short run (it can be used on the treadmill!) to try it out. It's really neat, and now I have all kinds of new stats I can keep track of. :)

We spent the rest of the day with Tom's family, eating tons of good food and visiting with everyone. I also spent some time calling my family (they're all on the West coast) to wish them a Merry Christmas. It was a fun day!

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas!

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Buddy's really excited

Merry Christmas Eve!

Buddy's really excited for Christmas.

I did a short (1.25 mile) run today to keep my running streak going, and used it as a warm up. Then I did a yoga video on Gigabody.

Actually, it was a combination of yoga and strength training (they call it Xen Strength). I liked it more than I usually like yoga, I may even do it again! Maybe.

Now we're headed off to the Captain Lawrence Brewery to try some special holiday beers, and later we're meeting up with some friends for a couple drinks.

This won't look as pretty after tomorrow morning.

Hope you're having a great night and have a fun Christmas morning! :)

1,000 Miles in 2014

This morning I watched my absolute favorite Christmas show.

Growing up, I had a Christmas tape with several different shows (Garfield's 9 Lives, A Snow White Christmas, a snippet of Fat Albert, Care Bear's Nutcracker and A Muppet Family Christmas). At some point in high school, I sat on the vcr remote and RECORDED OVER my Christmas tape.

It was not a good day.

The best of those shows was A Muppet Family Christmas, it had the Muppets, Sesame Street characters, the Fraggles, and had a Jim Henson cameo at the end - plus it had all the excellent 80s commercials. It originally aired in 1987, and because of poorly thought out song rights (they only secured them for airing on television) all the versions available to purchase are seriously edited (and obviously don't have the awesome commercials).

I managed to find someone online who had the original version (commercials and all!), so now I have it on dvd.

It's pretty much the best.

I did it! Today I broke 1,000 miles for 2014! It's definitely the most I have ever run in a year. I ran 4.5 miles and called it good. I may cut back on my mileage now that I've hit my 1,000, but I'm kind of in the middle of the Runner's World Holiday Run Streak (at least 1 mile a day Thanksgiving-New Years) and I don't really want to stop.

My falling injury is looking better, mostly. There are some good colors in the bruises.

I got fun mail again today. Jan sent me some KT tape for my ankle, and also some really tasty looking corn salsa and some treats for Buddy.

He was pretty excited to get the mail too :)

A Big Chicken, Fun Mail, and Good Food

Buddy is officially afraid of the smoke detector/oven. He was home alone a few weeks ago when the low battery warning started going off...every 60 seconds the alarm would sound, and the voice (because it talks) would say "low battery." We don't know how long it was going off before I got home, but he's been afraid of it ever since.

Now he acts weird when we turn the oven on and looks anxiously up at the smoke alarm. Apparently he's made the connection between the oven being on and the smoke alarm going off. When it goes off (it's sensitive, we don't just burn things all the time), he jumps on the couch, or runs upstairs to hide.

We have an 80lb chicken for a dog.

This is Buddy keeping an eye on the smoke alarm - he doesn't understand why we are not concerned by the woman in the ceiling.

I wore my Transcends to run today to (hopefully) give my foot/ankle a little more support - and then I complained about how heavy they are compared to my usual Mizunos. I think they helped though.

It was a fun mail day today.

I was a little disappointed that my Pro Compression grab bag ended up being two colors I already have and a pair of Ragnar socks (I guess now I should run a Ragnar relay?). It will still be nice to have new socks, a couple of my old ones are getting stretched out.

I got new Nuun to try out - Tangerine Ginger! And they threw in a fun holiday glass! :)

Dinner tonight was Egg Roll in a Bowl. It doesn't photograph well, but it's delicious! We make it pretty often, and switch up what veggies we throw in (I say we, but Tom cooks it).

I made more Eggnog cookies tonight too - my running group polished off most of the last batch, so we needed more to have for Christmas.

Are you ready for the holidays or do you still have tons of things to do?

Snow and some race research

It tried to snow here this morning. It was really pretty, but it stuck to my car and that's pretty much it.

Like my dead tomato plant stick? I should probably pull that out or something...

Tom laughed at me because I wore my coat to the basement for my run this afternoon. It was cold down there!

It's possible I tweaked my problem ankle when I fell yesterday, because for the first time, I could feel it when I was running today. Not bad, but the fact that I could feel it at all isn't the best news. I did an easy 2 miles and called it good.

I completely forgot that I had Tiger Balm in the medicine cabinet. I put some on my ankle, maybe that will help a bit.

I've been doing a little race research, trying to find some races I want to do next year. Right now I'm looking at 3 half marathons (I don't like racing every weekend - I like having a race every few months), and...a marathon?!? It's a distinct possibility.

I'm planning on putting my name in for the NYC marathon in January when the lottery opens up (Jan 15th) because I think it would be a crazy/awesome first marathon (crowd support alone), so we'll see how that goes. I'm also looking at a couple in Pennsylvania and one up in central NY as options if I don't get NYC.

It's kind of inevitable

Happy Saturday!

I hope you're having a great weekend so far and haven't had to venture out and deal with the last-minute shopping madness.

Friday was pretty uneventful around here. I ran, I did dishes, harassed the dog - the usual.

I got to try out my new tank top from Sweat Pink - it's really soft!

I was up too late on Friday night, hanging out and drinking eggnog, so 6:45 felt even earlier than usual this morning.

Pre-run breakfast was coffee and an English muffin with peanut butter. It's my go-to meal before a run or a race.

For some reason, it felt extra cold this morning. My face was numb for about half the run. We were pretty speedy today, we averaged an 8:48 minute pace for around 6.5 miles. It was a really good run! And I fell. It's kind of inevitable if you spend enough time on the trails. We've all done it.

We were about half a mile away from finishing when my toe caught on a tree root. I impressively managed to hit both knees, my right hip, forearm and shoulder. I'm not even sure how I was able to hit so many body parts on the ground. A couple of guys from my running group were right there and helped me up, and we were off again. I must have been a little numb from the cold, because things definitely started to hurt more once I got home.

Not my worst injury (you should have seen some of the ones from roller derby), but not fun either.

I was also very popular this morning because I brought some eggnog cookies for everyone.

I watched The Book Thief this afternoon. It's a total crying movie - and if you haven't read the book, you totally should.

Now I'm being festive drinking White Christmas tea and watching Die Hard (It's totally a Christmas movie).

What's your favorite Christmas movie?

Any good falling stories?

I'm a Nuunbassador!

I was a time-wasting master today.

I'm not even sure where the day went. I spent a lot of time reading blogs and other random things online (down the rabbit hole).

I watched one of my favorite holiday Bones episodes while I ran this afternoon. Season 1, episode 9, in case you were wondering.

Adding yesterday's quick 2 miler to today's 4 miles, and I'm now under 20 miles until I hit the 1,000 mile mark!

I got a pretty exciting email yesterday - I'm going to be a Nuun Ambassador for 2015!

I'm not a big fan of sports drinks, but I love Nuun (just ask Tom, our kitchen cabinets have Nuun tablets all over the place)! Nuun is an electrolyte enhanced drink that's sugar free, carb free and really tasty.

Watermelon is my favorite, but I have about 4 other flavors to pick from as well - and there are even more available on their website.

Basically, I drink Nuun constantly anyway, but now I get discounted product and an excuse to tell even more people about it! :)

I think that's all the news for now, so I'll leave you with a picture of the dogpile that happened on our couch last night.