Less than a week...

And I will be in sunny Florida for my race. Can I just say I am super excited for this, but so crazy nervous as well. This is my first long distance run ever, and I am worried that it might ruin me for my lofty ambitions for this year. I mean I was kind of thinking of doing a marathon in September too. Did I just say that out loud? No, ok I can still take it back later. 

Well, let's get to this update shall we? 

Monday: I ran in gym. 2.37miles and it felt moderately good. Not fantastic, but good. I mean it wasn't snowing but after the death trap of Sundays run it was good. I did have work this night so I also did some body weight strength training. 

Tuesday: I was an unmotivated mess this day, nothing was getting me out of bed. The bf did try to get me out before we were supposed to look at the apartment, but in all honesty if he had offered to go with me I probably would have gone. I don't think he likes my training very much to be honest. I also re-downloaded an app and started really using it. The myfitnesspal app, it is interesting, it keeps track of calories burned and eaten and keeps a running tally of what you have left for the day. I might talk about it more later when I get a better handle on it. 

Wednesday: so I did a boatload this day, treadmill 5.01 miles and 3.14 on the elliptical trainer. Had to close at work and when I left there the snow had started so I didn't get back to the gym. I did however get a couple of strength training exercises in while at work. 

On a randomish note, one week from now I will be in Disney World with my family and I am counting down the days. 

Thursday: 3.1 miles on the treadmill. 

Friday: nadda work

Saturday: nadda work

Sunday: nadda work. I'm a bad fitness blogger. 

Yikes! Stuff just got real!

So I have been trying to figure out how to phrase this post for the last couple of days since "IT" arrived. What you may ask could have come in the mail to freak me out?

Nothing... WHAT?!?

Yep, nothing physical came via post, this realness came via the email. And that my dear friends would be the final race instructions for my entry into the Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon on the 23rd of this month. 

This weekend I have just felt so frazzled, kinda like a chicken with its head cut off. I don't feel like I am even remotely ready for this, and now on top of training I have to pack my suitcase and carry on for the trip. I mean tomorrow I am gonna finally try to get my 14 mile run in, I plan on splitting it up between indoor and outdoor running but either way I will probably be dying by the end of it all. Anyone wanna watch? No? Really I have no takers on this??

 ::crickets:: 

well I guess not. I am excited for my trip, although I worry that I might over pack. I have a couple of outfits planned... Well let me be honest, I have 1 outfit planned maybe 2. A dress I bought a couple of weeks ago for this very event, and my race attire (warm and cold outfits). But aside from that nothing. I don't really want too many options since I know I will probably only wear one or two things, I mean I'm only there 5 days including the race. 

But funny thing is I did find out that they're serving yucky lemon-lime powerade for the race. I might pick up some clif shot blocks in fruit punch... Not sure though, everything I have read says changing your diet on race day is a bad idea. Well wish me luck for tomorrow and in 10 days I will be in Florida... Can't wait. 

On another random note, tomorrow the bf and I are going to be looking at another promising apartment for when we move in a couple months. It's funny how I no longer see this apartment we live in as viable place to reside after our lease ends. Oh well. Fingers crossed this place is nice looking. 😉

Well that is it for today/night, hope you all had an amazing weekend and have lots of fun. I am off to finish work. 

As always Luv ya!!

Training is moving along

So this week I have been moving along pretty well with my training and have felt pretty motivated. Last weekend I also bought my plane tickets to Florida for the RunDisney Princess 1/2 Marathon, which adds to my feelings of it being real and about to happen. It is also slightly adding to the stress of not training as hard for the last month and a half.

Monday: this was just a quick little run of 2.58 miles outside. I ran in the new Asics shoes that my parents gave me for Christmas and they are really comfortable. If only they were a more neutral color and then they would be perfect.

they are the gel noosa tri. And I actually do love them.

The run itself was actually pretty chilly even as late in the day that I went. That there is frost coating the grass it always amazes me how pretty it is. 

 Winter is so boring just dead looking plants and white ground. Please someone bring me back spring. 

Wednesday: this 3.5mile run was done in the gym on the treadmill due to some serious fog issues, visibility was under a mile and I just did not feel safe running on the back roads where there is no sidewalk. So it was back to my old trusty #Nike lunarfly+4 for this one. They are starting to seriously wear out so I was glad for the present of new running shoes.

This is after leaving the gym the fog had cleared up a little bit, but not enough for me to feel safe running on the roads without sidewalks. 

Thursday: I was supposed to run when I got of work... But... I was just too tired and I didn't sleep too well Wednesday night and just wanted to crash after I got home. 

Today/Friday: today's run was a little more than 2 miles and extremely cold. I was foolish and thought that "sunny" was the same as warm. But atleast I got my two mile loop finished before I came home. Other than the chill factor, it was quite the enjoyable run. 

 This little picture I took as I was rounding the first turn on my run today the clouds rolled in just after I left the apartment and didn't let up even once. Although I did actually catch a family playing in the park down the street. 

 Isn't it cute though. There are times where I think "hey having a couple kids would be so cute" then I go into work and get snapped back to reality by children using the fixtures as a jungle gym. And with that tangent I am off to go have a super unhealthy dinner. 

Luv ya all!

14 in 2014 Race plan for Jan and Feb

So since I do not have the whole year planned out just yet and I am not entirely sure how I would go about getting that many races paid for in the first month of the year. so I will be doing bi-monthy posts about what races I plan on doing those months. This being the first post on it I only have a couple of races that I am thinking about. I know I am horrible about keeping up with my runs, and I am hoping that doing this will force me to keep motivated with my running schedule. I love what it has done for my body up to this point and I love pushing myself it is giving me the same feeling that I used to get from lifting and I have missed it a lot. anyway enough with the exposition and on with the races.

January-

11-19: Get Ready for Summer Virtual run. This will be my first race of the year if I can register for it. I think I will do the 10k run for it, as I really dont think that I am ready for a 1/2 just yet. It will come later though.

25th: The 2nd Annual Chocolate Frosted Buns 5k. I am actually pretty excited for this run as it is pretty close to where I live currently. However if I cannot get into it because of work I am not going to beat myself up over it. I cannot really miss too much work in the month of January or early in the month of Feb, but the reason for that is coming up I promise.

February-

8-16: The Puppy Love Run. this is another virtual run, for this I am thinking about doing either the 5k or the 10k, I haven't really decided yet. I do have a little more than a month to make that decision though.

23rd: The Disney Princess 1/2 Marathon. This run I have been training for since last summer and I am so excited to do it. I know that I will finish this race if it kills me. and I will be honest it really might, I have yet to finish a 13 mile run at any pace so I don't really know if I will be able to get that done in under a 16'00"/mile pace and I am slightly worried about that. we shall see though I have a little less than 2 months to feel comfortable with my race pace at longer distances.

Well this is the race plan for the next two months wish me luck please, I am gonna be getting my plane tickets in the next week for february, and I will also put in my time off request at work at the same time. well I am now off to get a couple of errands done for today. Thanks for listening.

Luv ya all!

Post run exhaustion

My race Saturday was so much fun! Although it was a little stressful getting to the starting line and packet pick up. I finished and that is all that matters. I actually ended up finishing in record time for myself and I wasn't the last finisher which were my only real goals for this race. I don't know my actual times yet as they have not been posted to the website but I think I finished the 10k in 1:30:15 which was a 14'22" mile pace. That paired with the fact that it was mostly a trail race (first time running on a trail) it was amazing that I was able to get my goal pace. I do wish though that I had more pictures. I didn't take any during the race or after, my brain just wasn't working for that. Although here are a couple from just before the start. 

So it wasn't a big race by any means and I am really glad that I chose it for my first 10k. And I am also thinking I might do it again next year if I am still in the area. So Give Thanks For Lebanon, I will be running you next year and beating my time. Hopefully I won't be anywhere near the last person (was second to last this year) and waaAy behind the finisher before me. But overall I will say this about runners in PA they are the most welcoming people I have met since I moved out here. I'm actually hopeful for the next couple of years. 

Anyway, after my most amazing run I drove myself home, only to find out why my dad waits one to two hrs after he is done running a race before we drive home. I almost fell asleep 3 times while driving the 40 minutes home. Needless to say I will not be going to any race longer than a 5k by myself again. The bf will just have to suck it up and come with me to drive, if that is all he ends up doing that would be enough. When I finally did get home I gave myself permission to eat most unhealthy food, I ordered dominos pizza for brunch/lunch/dinner. Yep I got three meals out if those two pizzas and so did the bf so over all not a bad decision. 

After a three hour nap I felt pretty good, I hobbled over to the shower and washed up for work. And even beat my goal at work too. So overall for the day it was pretty amazing, I am hoping that my adreniline high continues long after this race and carries into whatever I end up doing next. Maybe the winter series of 10k runs out here? I think it starts the beginning of next month... Eh we shall see.

Anyway sorry for the super unorganized post but I wanted to get this up sooner and I still haven't really sorted through my own emotions on the whole thing yet either. I have a post in mind for the next couple of days that is running related so please stay tuned for that. It should be up in the next couple of days.  

Long run this Saturday yay!

Well let's see, I'm being pretty bad and procrastinating getting ready for work. I went for my long run today for my princess training, 8.14miles.

I can honestly say that when I got home I wanted to either curl up into a ball and cry or calmly throw up when I got to the top of the steps to our apartment. Which is kinda funny as I felt perfectly fine during the run. I do honestly love how my body feels during a long run; the tight feeling in my legs, the shortness of breath, and knowing that I can push my body beyond where I had ever believed was possible in the past. I missed the feeling these last couple of weeks. This was my first truly long run in the last month, it's so strange I think I might have let my boss get into my head more than I had originally thought. She kept saying it was bizarre that I would go for any kind of exercise before coming into work, if I ever told her the number of miles I had done or what I was training for I got the look of "you're absolutely nuts" I don't usually like getting that look from people I deal with regularly. Eh whatever, overall at this point I have gone for a run the last four days, and I am hoping that I can begin another running streak. We'll see.

 It's amazing the things I notice when I am out for my runs. I took a similar path to what I used to this summer and I just noticed this. I wanted to go inside but the gate was locked and requires a key code to get in. Curiosity is killing me though. I must know what the historic hallam preservation is. 

I have finished another leg on the blue bear and hope that I can finish it this weekend. I am also loving my I ♥️Radio app, it allows me to listen to the radio stations from back home, I didn't think that just that one thing could make me feel a little bit better from my homesickness. I'll be honest that is probably one of the main reasons I am running as much as I have since I moved, it makes me feel like I am closer to my parents. Sheesh February can't come soon enough, I miss them like crazy.

Oh on a random note from my run I did beat three of my previous records on my Nike+ app. I beat my fastest 10k,

my longest run,

and my farthest run as well

. So I am really excited about that. I think that is all that I have to say at the moment, I know I said that I would talk about something else in this  post.... But I cannot for the life of me remember what that is.... Hmmm.... Maybe it will come to me later today and I will write it up later. 😉

Luv ya!

Disney Princess 1/2 training day 1

Well I started my "real" training today for the Disney princess 1/2 marathon today. I almost ran the whole 30 minutes with 60-90 second walking breaks when I couldn't breathe. Sad thing is that I ran for a total of 29:25 and had a pace of 15'46". So only 1.86mi. I think I might have caught what my lovely roommate/boyfriend had last week. I've been coughing up a storm and sneezing like crazy too. But it could also be attributed to the fact that I haven't run in about a week and a half due to scheduling conflicts with work and the weather also hasn't been playing nice either. 

Oh well anyway today I am starting my training plan for the 1/2 in February so wish me luck that I don't bust something before then. Because that would just be my luck, to break something like the week before and not be able to do the run at all. I do still have to do my proof of time race as of yet, so that I do not get placed in the last starting corral. Fingers crossed that I can find a 10k or longer race out here for a decent price in the next month or so, any ideas would be appriciated. 

On the yarny front, I haven't really gotten to far along on my current projects. This is probably due to the fact that yet hey keep getting put away by the afore mentioned boyfriend. It's amazing to me the boy can't put his own dishes into the sink or dishwasher but if I leave a ball of yarn out he feels the need to put it back into the storage tub. It's almost getting to the point that I might just pull out paint and canvases just to see what that will do to the poor boy's OCD. I know not very nice. Well I think that is it for this update if you want news more often you can always follow me on instagram or twitter @devilslove666 I'm kinda obsessed. 

Luv ya.