New Year, New Hair, New Shoes!

Buddy was extra stressed out this morning. It's a really rough life. 

I got some end of the year bookkeeping done this morning and then I was off to get my hair cut. It's been driving me crazy for about a month, so I finally made an appointment. I like making hair stylists a little nervous by having them cut 7+ inches off my hair. I'm sure they've had people freak out before.

I may have gotten new shoe envy when Tom was looking at/ordering shoes the other day and ordered a pair of my own.

They were on sale! And my pink Wave Riders are just about at the end of their life anyway. I can validate new running shoe purchases all day long.

But seriously, look how pretty they are!

So pretty.

Somehow, Tom's shoes haven't made it here yet, even though he ordered his first and we ended up ordering them from the same site. Sad.

George, one of my Insta-friends (what I just decided to call my Instagram friends, is that a thing?) and fellow Nuun enthusiasts, decided to host a new years 100 days of fitness challenge and invited me to participate. The goal is to keep each other accountable and get at least 30 minutes of some kind of activity every day. Most days my training plan will easily have this under control, but it will help keep me from being a running couch potato.

He's also throwing in a few 30 day challenges as part of the bigger challenge. Our first 30 days will be a plank challenge, which will probably be good for me since I hate any and all core work.

Aaaaand Yoga Camp starts tomorrow too! I'm going to do all the things. It's totally going to work.

Probably.

I hope you have a wonderful New Years (but not so wonderful that you don't feel good tomorrow)!

What are/were your New Years plans?

Do you make New Years resolutions?

Needs More Stickers

I had a really good run today!

I feel like I haven't said that in a while, but there it is. Maybe it's the cooler weather, and maybe it's the fact that I ran with music for the first time in a long time, but it was great!

I was less excited by my pace, but I had to remind myself that I haven't been very consistent with my running for the last month. My pace will come back, I just need to get back into a routine. I hear patience is a virtue or something.

Speaking of routine, I got my new training log today! I'm all set for New Years now.

It needs more stickers.

I'm getting geared up to get into training mode again. There are a couple of different training plans I've been checking out. The mileage for a half seems like nothing after training for Steamtown!

I really liked this Vega recovery supplement this summer, and I also grabbed a little pre-workout energizer to try out.

Our Blue Apron didn't get here today. The delivery guy allegedly couldn't find our house, despite the fact that they've delivered here before. I'm hoping it's a new driver. They have claimed to not be able to find the house before, but it's hard to believe since we live in a world with GPS and smart phones.

Fortunately, the ice packs that Blue Apron uses stay frozen a suspiciously long time, so everything should be fine if we get it tomorrow.

This is the depressed dog I get to hang out with when Tom leaves the house.

Buddy is just a little obsessed with Tom.

Do you have a go-to source for training plans?

Do you use any supplements or protein powders?

Wintery Weather

It snowed last night!

Ok, so it mostly sleeted and made a mess around the neighborhood, but that's a step toward some actual winter weather! I'm not complaining. I've been waiting all summer/fall for some cooler running weather. Bring it on!

We spent the morning waiting for the building inspector to come, and after several hours we found out he had his schedule all messed up and would come in the afternoon instead.

Tom is on the hunt for some new running shoes, so we took a bit of time before lunch to check out a few stores around us. The holidays must have wiped everybody's stock out, because there were hardly any options.

Then we had to rush home to eat some lunch before the inspector arrived. On the bright side, we didn't have to rush to get lunch eaten. He was late again. But at least the rough plumbing inspection is done and now we can move on to the next step.

With a half hour before sunset, Tom and I hit the road for a quick run, and managed to avoid the icy patches.

After laying around for longer than I should have post-run, I did a little yoga (with Adriene - she's my favorite). I was really sore after Sunday's yoga class and run. I'm not sure if it was just the yoga class (which was challenging) or the combination of a tough class followed by a run, but either way, the only thing I wanted to do yesterday was some really gentle yoga/stretching.

I still find it a little strange that I like yoga all of a sudden, but I'm just going with it.

My mom gave us more Blue Apron for Christmas, which we're really excited about! I had so much fun with the recipes last time. I can't wait to see what we get this time around. Our next box will be here tomorrow! For tonight though, we're planning on Chinese food, which I'm also excited about. :)

What's for dinner at your house? 

Are you excited for winter weather?

Moov NOW Review (Finally!)

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my privacy policy.

Oh man, remember when I got my Moov NOW and I was all like, "Yeah, I'll totally get a review up for you guys"? Yeah, that was a while ago. I'll go ahead and blame the holidays even though ours was pretty low-stress.

The Moov is super cool.

What? You wanted more than that?

Ok, fine.

The Moov NOW is part activity/sleep tracker, and part personal coach. It is NOT a pedometer. That is one of the main complaints I have seen about it. But it also doesn't claim to be a pedometer, so really people just need to do a little research before they buy things. Other people have somehow lost the pebble/sensor out of the band, which baffles me because I've been wearing mine for weeks and it has never once fallen out.

Here's an example of the activity screen. I was clearly a sleep glutton the other day.

The Moov comes with 2 bands, because you wear it on either your wrist or your ankle, depending on the workout.

Wearing it on your ankle will cause your friends to crack jokes about house arrest. Just a heads up.

It keeps track of most activity, though things like yoga don't register as "active minutes." What I really like are the running features. There are different interval options to work on speed and cadence and you can also just set it to "open training" and check out your stats after the fact.

You do have to have your phone (and their app, which is free) with you for running workouts, which is sometimes a pain for me, but definitely not a deal breaker.

The little coach chimes in with pace and distance from time to time, and lets you know if your impact is too high. Mine always is on the downhills, I haven't figured out how to run downhill gracefully yet.

Here's my (slow) run from Sunday:

If you're doing one of the interval workouts, the coach lets you know when to start, stop, if you are off pace, and it even gives little updates so you know how far into an interval you are. This is really nice when doing the speed endurance training because the intervals are just long enough for me to start wishing they were over. Knowing how much more I have to do definitely helps. Also there's no way I do intervals on my own out on the road, so this is really handy.

I have also used the 7 minute+ workout, which runs you through 3 sets of jumping jacks, squats, planks, lunges, push ups and crunches.

The Moov keeps track of your reps for you, and most of the time, I've found it to be pretty accurate. There have been a few times that it randomly decides not to count some of my jumping jacks (as though I am somehow doing them wrong - they're jumping jacks for crying out loud!), but it's right most of the time.

Here's an example of the details it gives at the end of the workout from a few weeks ago:

I actually built up some arm strength when I was doing this workout consistently for a few weeks, but started slacking off right before Christmas. Oops!

One thing I love about the Moov is that it doesn't have to be charged. My Fitbit was constantly dying on me, and don't even get me started on their screwy charger! The Moov takes a little coin battery and is supposed to last about 6 months. I haven't had to replace mine yet.

There are other features that are totally wasted on me, like swim and cycle "coaching," and cardio boxing. The swim and cycle are just open workouts, not guided coaching, that's why I used quotes. The cardio boxing pretty much requires that you have two Moovs (one for each wrist), and that just seems excessive to me.

The Moov is very cool overall, and you get what you put into it. It can be a passive activity tracker, or you can use it to its full potential, and use the coaching features. It doesn't remind you to work out, or set a schedule for you, but we're all big kids, we don't need that much hand holding, right?

Out of Shape and Yoga Camp!

I had a total "you know you're a runner when.." moment on my run today. I was getting all whiny and feeling really out of shape when I realized that if I were truly out of shape, I couldn't just go out and run 6+ miles. Yes, I'm slower than I would like to be right now, but I'm by no means really out of shape.

I haven't been very consistent with my workouts lately, and, hello, the holidays are not known to encourage healthy eating.

Basically, I need to adjust my priorities over the next couple weeks as I start training for my next half.

I went to yoga again this morning. I woke up late (aka I didn't set an alarm) and was all ready to decide not to go, but managed to get myself out the door in time.

The teacher was doing a lot of walking around during class today and I feel like she lost track of how long we were in some poses since she wasn't doing it herself. We were in a high lunge and/or warrior pose for a really long time, and my legs were dying. I was definitely feeling my hips on my run this afternoon. There wasn't a class after ours, so class ran over by about 15 minutes. I was more than ready for savasana (corpse pose) when the time rolled around.

I told you guys about Yoga with Adriene and the 30 days of yoga challenge that I did earlier this year. Well, she's doing a yoga camp (on youtube) in January - you should sign up! It's another 30 day challenge, so there will be new (free!) videos every day!

I'm going to do it, you should join me! Adriene cracks me up (she gets a little goofy in some of her videos), and I love all her videos. Her videos are what got me back into yoga after a very long break.

Sign up for yoga camp HERE!

Have you had any "you know you're a runner when..." moments?

Are you going to join me for yoga camp? :)

It's So Shiny!

First, and most importantly, Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you're enjoying all your birthday snow!

One of our more interesting adventures!

I hope you all had a great Christmas yesterday!

We had a relaxing morning drinking coffee and exchanging presents. Tom got me some new running socks, knucks lights to combat the gloomy darkness, and a replacement for my slowly dying computer (among other things)!

As I was trying to download a program to help me move my files to the new computer, the old one staged a protest.

Brat. That's why you're being replaced.

Look how pretty my new computer is!

We're an all-Mac household now. I've been doing work things on our office computer (which is a Mac), so it's not too tricky for me to make the switch. Plus if I can't figure something out, Tom knows how to fix things.

Christmas afternoon/evening was spent visiting with Tom's family and eating a lot of delicious food. It was a fun day!

I had grand plans to get out for a run today. I have new socks to take for a spin! Unfortunately, my stomach has been feeling off all day, so the only thing I really accomplished was some serious running shoe online window shopping (I've got my eye on the Brooks Launch 2) and the dishes.

Tom and Buddy went for a run instead. I was jealous.

Fingers crossed that I'll be back to normal tomorrow so I don't feel quite so lazy.

Fudge, Star Wars and Other Randomness

My pistachio fudge turned out pretty good! I actually think it's more of a nougat texture, but it's tasty!

I used this recipe, but I let it cook a little longer than it said because I felt like the mixture needed a little longer to smooth out and become less gritty. If I make it again I would use a larger pan so the fudge would come out a little thinner. It's very sweet, so I think it would be better if it was more spread out. A better pistachio to fudge ratio. 

I cut some seriously consistently sized pieces too. Ha!

We'll see what other people think on Christmas.

The Sound of Music was on tv the other night as a sing along - it was basically movie karaoke. Pretty funny.

Tom and I went and saw the new Star Wars on Monday.

And again on Tuesday.

Tom is a big Star Wars fan, so the fact that he wanted to see it again is a big endorsement for the movie. I really liked it too! Have you seen it yet?

I can't remember the last time gas was this cheap!

I got this body butter as part of an Influenster campaign, and I ended up really liking it. I'm officially out!

I'm still looking for my motivation. It's been really hard to get out the door for a run this week. I made it out on Tuesday for 6 miles around the neighborhood, and I wasn't ridiculously slow, which was nice. My made up training plan has gone out the window this month. I'll be back to an actual training plan in January, so my goal right now is to do what I can so I don't feel like I'm starting over when that time comes.

And since no post is complete without a Buddy picture:

Pistachio Fudge and Yoga!

I've been meaning to get out and meet some people around here. I have my running buddies, but they're a 45 minute drive away since we moved.

This morning I made myself go out of my comfort zone and went to a yoga class outside the house.

Crazy, right?

I was a little nervous because I haven't been to a yoga class in years - I've just done yoga on my own or with videos. It ended up being funny though because for all my worrying, there were only 3 other people at the class, and none of them were crazy yoga masters.

Other than my inability to breathe with the teacher counting, I managed to keep up. Plus, now that I've been to that studio, I won't be such a baby about going again.

Funny story: when I was sitting on the floor during the warm up I looked out the window and thought, "what a pretty view!" All I could see were trees and sky. When I stood up, I realized that the studio backs up onto a cemetery. So maybe pretty wasn't the right word...

This afternoon I got some jambalaya going in the crock pot for dinner and attempted to make some pistachio fudge.

I say attempted because it's still setting and I haven't tasted it yet. Hopefully it turns out and we have something to contribute to Christmas dessert!

Nothing like making candy on your patio!

Last year I made Eggnog Cookies, and man were they delicious! I had to get creative this year since we are still kitchen-less.

How was your weekend? 

Do you go to group fitness/yoga classes? 

Jingle All the Way

I saw snow this morning! It didn't stick around or anything, but it was a nice festive start to my day.

My running group (Rivertown Runners) likes to run with jingle bells the weekend before Christmas, so we were a noisy bunch on the trails today.

We had a pretty good turnout, and it was actually cold out!

I swiped this photo from the facebook page - photo credit to Joe Golden. You can see my black headband 4 in from the left.

For some reason, the run felt tougher than usual, but having people to run with always makes things go more quickly than running alone.

In house news, there hasn't been a lot going on that I can really show you pictures of. Rough electrical and plumbing just don't scream photo op.

Our shower base and tub are in now, one of these days we'll take that window out!

That right there is a 6 foot tub. It's going to be awesome to have a tub that you can actually soak in. I hate tubs where you have to choose whether you want your legs or your torso in the water.

Buddy's very excited.

Our weekend project (well, one of them) is to re-watch the Star Wars movies so we can go see the new movie on Monday or Tuesday while kids are still in school.

Have you seen the new Star Wars yet? Are you going to?

What's the last movie you saw in the theater? We pretty much never go. The last movie we saw in the theater was The Martian, but before that it was the third Hunger Games movie - we average about one per year.

Buddy The Running Dog

Have you seen my motivation anywhere? I seem to have lost it.

The last couple of days I have just NOT been feeling my runs/workouts for some reason. I have mostly been getting some decent workouts in, but I just don't want to.

I took a total rest day yesterday, and was well on my way to saying goodbye to today's run too when I saw this face:

Ooooookay, fine.

We hit the road and ended up having a nice, if slow, run. Buddy was doing really well, and every time I tried to let him take a walk break he would just keep running. He hit a new distance today - 4 miles!

He's a little tired now.

A kiddo in one of my classes gave me chocolate covered pretzels and holiday scented hand sanitizer today. Sweet.

I sent most of my Christmas presents off in the mail today. The woman at the post office was not very friendly (there's a guy who works there who is much nicer), but the end result was the same.

Oh, and if you need/want anything from PRO Compression, they're having their year end sale right now - 42% off (and free shipping!) with code: YEAREND

The code is good until the 31st - go get some socks!

The Best Intentions

I had planned on getting back to the blog sooner. The days around the holidays just go by so quickly!

I tried to update iTunes the other day. The install failed and then I had no iTunes at all. I then spent several days trying to figure out the problem. In the end, I have no idea which of the many things I tried actually solved the problem, but at least I have access to my music and audiobooks again.

Technology is fun like that.

Buddy is the best training partner. I don't know anyone who is always this excited to go for a run.

I have been taking him with me two days a week for 2-3 miles, and he's doing great! He gets so excited when I change into my running clothes, and I always feel bad when I don't take him with me. Maybe someday we'll work up to longer runs.

I couldn't pass these up at the grocery store the other day. They're already gone.

I met up with my old running group again on Saturday. I was really tired, but it ended up being a really nice run on the trails. It was almost too hot by the time we finished. Our weather is really weird right now (way too warm for December), it doesn't feel like Christmas is almost here.

When I got home I hung out (in my running gear) with the lap dog for a while.

And I learned that there is an entire channel just hanging out, waiting for the Star Wars red carpet. Seems weird.

I had a long run on my (made up) training plan for today. I was shooting for 10, but quickly realized that was not going to happen. I don't know if it was the weather, my 7 miles on Saturday, or if I'm just tired, but every mile was a struggle today.

I pushed through and my last mile was actually my fastest least slow, so at least I rallied and finished 8 miles strong.

What's your weather doing? 

How's your running lately?