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.

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? 

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!

Goals and Decorations

It's almost the end of the year, that time when everyone starts thinking about the things they've done and the things they wish were different. For me today, that meant thinking back over this year's races.

My main goal this year was to finish my first marathon. I wasn't really focused on getting faster, just putting in the miles to make sure I finished Steamtown upright and happy.

I ran four half marathons this year, all right around two hours. A shiny new PR evaded me all year. I feel like if I'm going to improve my times, it's going to take more than just running. If I really want to get faster, I'm going to need to mix things up, and add some - gasp - strength training. The problem with strength training is that every time I think about doing any, I think "no, I don't really want to do that." So that's something I'm going to have to work on.

We don't have a space for the Christmas tree this year, but I have decorated the lights next to the tv. Plus we put holiday M&Ms in the gumball machine, so that's festive.

I also wrapped a bunch of presents, but it's not the same without a tree. Tom keeps teasing and saying "maybe we'll have a tree next year." I told him there was no maybe about it.

We got all dressed up over the weekend for a holiday dinner. It's the one day a year that we actually dress up, so we made sure to get photographic proof.

And here's an obligatory Buddy picture for you. I know you only read the blog to see Buddy ;)

Thanksgiving, Playing Chicken and Shopping

How was your Thanksgiving?

We had a pretty laid back holiday, which was really nice. Tom was up dark and early to do a little sitting in the woods hunting with our neighbor. Buddy and I had a relaxing morning and I finally got myself out the door around 10 to go for a run.

My watch is back and fully functional!

TomTom customer service was wonderful and the only thing I had to pay for was shipping the busted watch back to them. I ran an easy 8 with my audiobook, took a short break at home and then went back out for another 2 with Tom and Buddy. Ten Thanksgiving miles before the big meal.

The house was too hot when we got home, so we spent a little cool off time in the yard. Sometimes when Buddy is running around the yard he plays chicken. He runs straight at you and then veers off to one side or the other at the last second and just keeps on running. Only yesterday, instead of holding still, I tried to move out of the way and took his giant head right to the side of my knee. I ended up on my butt, facing the opposite direction I had been standing. Tom did a really good job of making sure I wasn't actually hurt before he started laughing. There's definitely a bruise, but I'll survive.

We went to Tom's friend's house for dinner and had a nice time visiting with everyone and eating way too much food - as is traditional.

I spent most of today thinking that it was Saturday, and doing dishes. I have no idea how two people create so many dishes. We're just talented like that. Plus I checked out a few online black Friday deals and did a little Christmas shopping from the comfort of my couch. I don't do black Friday. People are crazy.

Did you brave the crowds and go shopping today?

What was the best part of your Thanksgiving? 

Long Weekend Laziness

Oh hey! I hope you all had a good holiday weekend! Sorry for the major disappearing act, but we were out of town and I switched into total vacation mode.

We spent our weekend at Tom's family's lake house and had a nice, relaxing weekend. The weather was all over the place, but we had one good afternoon out on the jet boat. Tom likes driving super fast and doing crazy sharp turns/power slides - it takes me a little bit to get used to being on the boat, and then it's a lot of fun.

There's a spot on the lake with a rock that Tom likes to jump off of (he estimates it to be about 20 feet up, or a little less). It took a great deal of patience and insisting that I wouldn't die, but he convinced me to jump. The water was COLD, and that was with shortie wetsuits on (it didn't help that I'm not used to wetsuits and was pretty sure it was trying to suffocate me).

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, eating, and visiting. It was excellent.

I did manage to convince myself to go for a run on Saturday, and took a very pretty (and very hilly) 5 mile run on the roads near the house. I don't feel too bad for slacking off a little since I didn't actually take any recovery time after my last race.

I'm back to business as usual starting tomorrow  - apparently my next race is in 18 days, so I should probably get a little more focused...

Happy 2015!

Happy New Year! I hope you did something fun last night (note: going to bed early totally counts as fun too)!

We went to a friend's house and had dinner and a Christmas tree bonfire.

Tom made a couple of pan pizzas that were quickly devoured and we spent a while visiting inside (it was COLD out). We (the boys) started the fire around 11. A surprising number of people in nearby neighborhoods had already put their trees out to get picked up by the garbage trucks, so we had 6 trees at our disposal.

Just in case you were wondering, Christmas trees really are a fire hazard - keep 'em watered!

The boys like big fires.

We also released a couple of lanterns.

It was a really nice, laid-back night!

I started my New Years morning with coffee and a protein smoothie. Smoothies might be my new favorite thing...this week.

My running group has a tradition of meeting up at noon on New Years for a group picture and a run (one claim is that the tradition started in 1972, others disagree). Even though I really just wanted to stay in my pajamas and drink more coffee, I got changed and headed out to meet up with them.

The unofficial count was 35(or 37, or 33, it was very unofficial) people - a pretty good turnout considering it was New Years and 32 degrees out! We hit the trails for just under 7 miles and then enjoyed some champagne and orange juice when we were finished. A pretty excellent alternative to sitting at home in my pajamas!

Buddy was on high alert when Tom went to the grocery store today. Any and all sounds were suspect.

He's now hiding from the scary kitchen while Tom makes dinner. Even when I washed the dishes earlier he was acting weird. I hope this is just a phase and he won't just be scared every time we are in the kitchen now.

Did you go for a New Years run today?

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?

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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