Challenge

I love challenges! It keeps me motivated and gives me something to look forward to. My next challenge you ask? Run for the Bling of It! I was already somewhat planning in my head to run as many races in 2011 as I can, but this will keep me honest. The challenge says I have to run at least one race every month and blog about it. Easy enough, right? I mean, check out my Upcoming Races section over there -----> It's getting pretty full!

I keep thinking that I need a New Year's resolution, but why? I didn't stick to last year's resolution. Although it was set pretty dang high. Maybe I should try for a total mileage for the year. According to my Garmin stats, I have run 528 miles so far this year (and that's not including my recent runs that I haven't uploaded yet), but that's only miles tracked by Marvin. There were several runs without him due to lack of battery power. I'm thinking I could definately add to that number. So is 1000 miles too much to shoot for? Maybe it is. I'll get back to you on this one.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the Christmas presents I got from my family. Lovely cooking stuff I wanted and gorgeous martini glasses! But I can't use any of it. Why? Cuz they also gave me a stomach bug. I got in a nice run Monday night, but that's been the last of it for me. I'm feeling better so far today, so I'm hoping I can get at least one more run in before the year is over. I still haven't gotten to wear the new shoes yet!

Happy last week of the year!

Christmas and other stuff

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I sure did - look what Santa (aka Hubby) brought me.

The new version of my Brooks shoes in RED! I saw this color when they came out and just begged for them. I'm so glad he took the hints :)

Before we left for the Christmas holidays and stuck the kids (aka doggies) in the car for 4 hours, I decided to take them out on a run. Well, the Lilly runs, but the Jager can only hang for about 1/2 a mile. Silly chihuahuas are not made for running! 

Here's the Lilly sitting pretty waiting for me to put the leash on her. She loves going out running, but I hardly ever take her. Shame on me! I really need to get her more of a harness type collar instead of a traditional one. She can slip out of this one pretty easily. We did 4.5 miles around the neighborhood and she enjoyed every second of it. Although, her long legs looked like they were just taking a nice walk whereas I was running a steady 9:50min/mile pace. I even tried to sprint with her for a quarter mile - I think she made it to a trot! Either way, it wore her out and she slept the whole drive to my parents' house.

Tagged!

I was tagged by Amanda at RuntoTheFinish for this little questionaire, so read-on if you wanna know more about moi.

1. Are you a girlie movie? Action movie? or Comedy kind of person? Definately a girlie movie kinda gal. My husband is pretty embarassed by my Netflix Queue actually. I watch my fair share of action and comedy with the husband, but there's nothing that beats coming home from that Saturday morning long run and curling up on the couch with my smoothie, ice and chick-flick before the hubby wakes up.


2. What is your favorite thing to do to “treat” yourself? I'd like to say "get a massage" but I really rarely do that. When I do, it feels like a treat, but mostly my treats consist of Anthropologie sales. There's something about that store that just makes a bad day disappear.

3. How much sleep do you need to feel your best? Normally, I'd say 8. But I just started a morning workout regime and I find myself usually getting no more that 7 and still feeling really good.

4. What vegetable could you eat every day? I'm torn! I absolutely LOVE vegetables and never feel like I eat enough of them. My favorites: broccoli and squash. I really don't think I'd ever tire of either of them. My husband thinks I'm wierd because I crave them like some people crave cupcakes (although I crave those too!).

5. Dream place to run? Central Park. Although I've never been to New York and could really care less about seeing anything else there. When/if I finally ever visit NYC, I've already promised myself that I'd run in Central Park every day I'm there.

6. Last good book you read? I've read a lot of good books this year, but I'm going to have to say Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. I couldn't put it down! Hubby even loved it and he's not a runner.

7. What was the best year of your life? Wow, really hard question here. I really think that every year of my life is better than the last, but I guess if I really have to pick one I'd say the year I got married. I was 26 and had just become a runner. I dealt with the stress of moving in with my fiance, planning a wedding, dealing with injury and trying to stay fit. It was a tough year, but all of it was totally worth it. It really showed me who I am and what I'm capable of.

I really enjoyed these questions, so now I'm going to tag 3 of you!
Jenna Renee at http://runlawyergirlrun.blogspot.com/
Linz at http://destination262.wordpress.com/
Barbie at http://barbieruns.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the survey, Amanda! Now for something even more fun. Check out E and I hustling our way through the last mile of the Jingle Bell last week!

We don't even look like we are breaking a sweat!

Jingle Bell 5 Miler

Sunday was the Jingle Bell 5 Miler in downtown. A few of my running friends ran it last year as their first experience with running, so now they are trying to make it a yearly fun run. Well, I say "fun run" but let's face it - I don't know how to not try for a PR, especially for a distance I've only raced once. My previous five mile race was in February 2009 and my finishing time was 46:57. I honestly didn't have any goals for this race, but C wanted me to pace her to an under 9 min mile. I wasn't sure I was up for the task, but I told her I'd do my best.

E and I before the race. 

The group getting ready. We'd already done a few yoga moves and lots of jumping up and down to stay warm. I think it was a freezing 48 degrees at the start.*

And we're off!

The first 1/2 mile or so was through the tall buildings in downtown that create an insane wind tunnel. It was work just trying to keep up a good pace.

Finally out of downtown and starting a good pace. C was still keeping up at this point, but her asthma kicked in shortly after this. She still finished in a great time, but E and I pulled ahead after making sure she'd be okay on her own.

Here comes Speedy on the other side of the course. We had just passed mile 2 at 19 minutes. He was almost to mile 4. I'll never be that fast!

E and I just kept up the pace. The turnaround came and we still felt great. It was starting to get warm outside, but the wind was keeping us cooled off. Thank goodness since I was wearing a cotton t-shirt! I tried not to look at my watch during the race, but just to run what felt good. My heels started to hurt a little around mile 2, but I didn't worry about it. It was a beautiful day for a race and we were having a great time.

Before we knew it, we were running back into downtown and picking up speed. The finish line came into view and E asked if we were going to sprint. I said "give it all you've got!"

Oh, and we did! All of us had excellent runs! Speedy came in 3rd in his age group! This is our goofy pose. Not sure why we all decided to kick our feet up like that :)

One fault of the race (or perk if you were speedy like us): The vendors were giving away all their swag in big boxes. Proof: above E and D both got 70 sample boxes of Cinammon Toast Crunch. Not sure why they weren't giving them out individually, but that kinda sucks for everyone else running the race. When we finished, vendors were already taking their tents down. Hello, the race is still going on!

Our official time: 43:26! Talk about an awesome PR!

Oh, and remember how I said my heels hurt? Yeah, my shoes rubbed the skin off the back of my heels. My shoes and socks were soaked in blood when I checked them at the finish. And this race had no medic tent. What!? Thank goodness the cute guy at the massage tent had bandaids and peroxide to clean me up!



Three Things Thursday

1. Hubby has officially approved of our trip to Providence for the Shape Up Half Marathon on May 1st. It's going to be a great birthday weekend visiting friends we haven't seen in over a year and racing!

2. Running is really hard this time of year. I've been working on my ability to wake early in the mornings and get my workouts in. MWF mornings I have a boot camp class at 6:30 that I haven't skipped yet. I'm really proud of myself, but I'm trying to extend those early mornings to T-Th too so I can run before work.

3. This Sunday is the Jingle Bell 5 Miler and I'm so excited. It's been a long time since I've raced a short distance and I'm really curious to see what I can do. Stay tuned!

I love Bill White

Well, not as in love love, but you know, just love. As mayor of Houston, he really stood behind making us a fitter city and providing the citizens with all the exercise opportunities he could. Bill White was an avid biker, so he supported and pushed for such things as bike donations, organized rides, bike safety and best of all: bike trails. When we bought our house 2 years ago, I was really excited to be only a quarter mile from the (at the time) almost finished bike trail. The Mayor's idea of Rails to Trails took all of the unused/abandoned railroad lines through town and replaced them with paved bike trails. From my house, I can pick up the trail going north about 2.5 miles or head south for about 4 miles before it dead ends.

After my long run this morning, it was such a pretty day that I decided it would be a great idea to bike to work. My bike trail heading south will take me under all the freeways and spit me out 2 miles from downtown where my office building is. Imagine my surprise when I reached the end of the trail today to be greeted with this:

Before, this was a grassy/gravel/untaken care of strip of land. It was very unsafe to run on since it was so uneven and even biking was a chore. I pretty much just avoided it and so did everyone else.

See the tract laid out where the concrete path will go? If you look hard enough, you can see where they've already started laying the concrete. I'm so excited! Soon I'll be able to run/walk/bike all the way to downtown and have access to the bayous, Eleanor Tinsley trails and the eastsidetrail. Bill White's plan is still in effect even now that he's no longer mayor. He wanted all of the trails to be connected throughout town and this is a big piece of that! I can't wait for this to be finished - and of course Hubby to be healed so that we can bike it together!

Three Things Thursday

1. I'd like to say that I'm totally excited about it finally being December and Christmas being around the corner, but I'm not really. I don't have a tree up (nor do I see one in my future) and listening to my Christmas music just feels wrong. Hopefully it starts feeling like the season soon because I usually love this time of year!
2. I haven't been running again. :( How does everyone do it now that the time has changed? Better yet, how did I do it last year? I keep turning my alarm off in the mornings so there is no time before work and then after work I'm so depressed about it being dark that I just want to do nothing. And Hubby being laid up on the couch since his knee surgery this week isn't helping to motivate me. I need the summer back!

3. Love Clif products? Love winning free stuff? SkinnyRunner is holding a giveaway of 4 different Clif products. Head on over here to sign up!